95 



taneously in the vicinity of towns and villages, but not sufficiently per- 

 manent in its wild propagation to be considered as naturalized. 



Briza media. Common Quaking Grass, Maiden's-hair, Cow-quakes, 

 Lady's-hair. Plate LXXVII. 



Spikelets broadly ovate, about seven-flowered. Glumes shorter than 

 the lowermost flower. Ligule short, obtuse. 



Briza media, Liniweus. E. B. 340 ; ed. 2. 137. Generally adopted. 



A common grass on open downs and pastures, especially in poor 

 shallow rocky soils, in which it often constitutes the principal vegeta- 

 tion, but rapidly disappears before the advance of cultivation, being 

 soon overpowered by the more succulent and luxuriant species thus 

 brought into competition. An elegant plant, forming tufts, never 

 spreading at the root. Stems from a few inches to a foot or even a 

 foot and a half in height, erect, smooth, and slender. Leaves flat, 

 short, l^linear, acute. Ligule usually very short, occasionally all but 

 obsolete, always terminating abruptly. Panicle two to four inches 

 long, widely spreading, triangular in general outline ; branches smooth, 

 very slender, wiry, wavy or zig-zag, arranged in alternate pairs on 

 the smooth rachis. Spikelets pendulous on long slender footstalks, 

 mostly six- or seven-flowered, broadly ovate, compressed, purple or 

 brown, variegated with green and white. Glumes and outer paleae 

 nearly corresponding in texture, approaching coriaceous, but with thin 

 or soarious whitish margins. Glumes shorter than the lowermost 

 flower. Lower palea roundish-oval, not gibbous, upper one minute, 

 resembling a flat membranaceous scale. 



Perennial. Flowers in June and July. 



Eaten by cattle generally in the pastures where it grows, especially 

 by sheep, but of little value on account of the comparatively scanty 

 foliage. For cultivation, even on poor soils, it is altogether unfitted, 

 as the produce would scarcely repay the expense of seed and sowing. 

 In the slow economy of nature it is a pioneer, valuable and efficient 

 in that office, but out of place elsewhere. 



Found throughout Europe, the extreme northern parts excepted, in 

 similar situations to those which it occupies in England. 



Briza minor. Lesser Quaking Grass. Plate LXXVIII. 



Spikelets triangular, five- to seven-flowered. Glumes longer than 

 the lowermost flower. Ligule long lanceolate, acute. 



Briza minor, LinncBus. E. B. 1316 ; ed. 2. 136. Generally adopted 

 by British botanists. 



Not indigenous, though long naturalized in the extreme south-west 

 of England, where it occurs occasionally on dry sandy fields and 

 heaths, especially towards the sea: it is likewise met with in the 



