94 



as, though dry during the summer, admit of the rain collecting upon 

 the surface at other times of the year ; hence it is often met with 

 growing on sandy fields and commons. Whole plant usually prostrate 

 and spreading, the stems only ascending and becoming erect at the 

 time of flowering, when they vary in height, according to circumstances, 

 from a few inches to a foot. Leaves linear, acuminate, more or less 

 hairy, rough towards the points. Ligule represented by a tuft of hairs. 

 Inflorescence consisting of a very small number of spLkelets, seldom 

 more than five or six, arranged like a raceme ; containing three or 

 four ilowers each, and standing erect on smooth alternately disposed 

 footstalks. Glumes very nearly equal, lanceolate, very acute, strongly 

 three-veined,* smooth, as long as or even longer than the spikelet. 

 Outer palea ovate, convex, or rounded externally, five-veined or 

 ribbed, with a small tuft of hairs on each side at the base ; three- 

 toothed at the apex, the middle tooth usually very short and stiif, being 

 an extension of the central vein. Inner or upper palea broad, obtuse, 

 entire at the apex, with two green, marginal, minutely ciliated veins. 



Perennial. Flowers in July. 



Its presence is always indicative of a poor soil. Harsh, rigid, and 

 insipid, like other colonizing grasses, it is generally rejected by cattle. 



Triodia decuinbens is almost essentially a European grass, being met 

 with on barren grounds over the whole Continent, from the borders of 

 the Mediterranean to those of the Grulf of Bothnia. It is a native like- 

 wise of some parts of Russian Asia. 



The peculiarity of the ligule is a marked feature, by which this grass 

 may be readily recognized. 



G-enus 32. BEIZA. Quaking Grass. 



Gen. Char. Inflorescence loosely panicled. Spikelets stalked, much 

 compressed, ovate or deltoid, with from three to eight densely 

 imbricated flowers. Glumes two, nearly equal, broad, obtuse, 

 three-veined, much shorter than the spikelet. Palese two ; lower 

 one boat-shaped, obtuse, rounded on the back, faintly many- 

 veined. Glumes and palese membranaceous, passing into coria- 

 ceous, with scarious margins. 



A small, but rather widely distributed genus of highly graceful and 

 ornamental grasses, of no agricultural value. 



The name, frorathe Greek hritho, to droop, suspend, or balance, 

 applies to the position of the broad oval or triangular spikelets, the 

 long stalks of which are so slender as to occasion them to tremble with 

 the slightest movement of the air. The English name is of course 

 expressive of the same result. 



All of the species are deserving of attention on account of their 

 beauty ; and an annual one, Briza maxima, a native of southern 

 Europe, has long occupied its place in the English flower-garden, now 

 and then eso'aping from the limits of the parterre, and appearing spon- 



