SEASHORE: DRY SANDY SOIL 39 
ing glumes have a curious dorsal awn; a ring of hairs divides 
it into two equal portions, the lower stout, striated, and slightly 
twisted, the upper part slender but gradually thickened towards 
the tip, so as to be somewhat club-shaped. Perennial, flowering in 
June, July. 
Mibora verna, the Early Sand-grass (fig. 28), or Knappia, is a 
diminutive annual found only on the S.W. coast of Anglesea and 
the shores of the Channel Islands. The culms are capillary, 1-3 
inches high, tufted. Leaves extremely short and narrow, with 
white sheaths. The spikelets, numbering from five to ten, are 
almost sessile in a spikelike raceme, which is about half an inch 
long; the spikelets are ~; inch long, and 1-flowered; glumes 
truncate and awnless, the flowering one a little shorter and downy. 
Flowering March, April. 
The three grasses next described are 
indigenous only to the Channel Islands:— 
Bromus maximus, the Great Brome, is 
found in sandy places on the shores of 
those islands; it does not occur any- 
where in Britain proper, except on the 
Tyne ballast-hills, where we found it 
four years ago. Culms stout, 10-18 inches 
high ; leaves rather broad, hairy on both 
surfaces. Panicle with a few scarcely 
divided branches, usually shorter than 
the spikelets, nodding in fruit. Spikelets 
1i inch long (exclusive of the awns), 
oblong, 5- or 6-flowered; flowering glumes 
imbricated, with a subterminal straight 
stout awn 14-2 inches (longer than that of 
any other Brome). Stamens usually two. 
Annual, flowering latter part of June, July. 
Lagurus ovatus, the Ovate Hare’s-tail, ; 
is found only in Guernsey. Culms tufted, _F1s- 28.—M@ébora verna: a 
plant, nat. size; & raceme 
6-12 inches. Leaves broad, downy ; enlarged, showing subsessile 
sheaths inflated. Spikelets + inch long, spikelets. 
I-flowered, with a stalk-like rudiment, 
densely crowded into a soft ovate-ovoid head which looks like 
a tuft of fur, and is only $ inch long, almost white; empty 
glumes very narrow and plumose, the margins being fringed with 
long silky hairs; flowering glume ending in two bristles, and 
with a long kneed and twisted awn inserted a little below the tip. 
Annual, flowering in June. The capitate inflorescence may often 
be seen in the grass-bouquets of the shops—mostly, however, larger 
cultivated specimens. 
Cynosurius echinatus, the Rough Dogstail, occurs very locally in 
sandy pastures on the shores of the Channel Islands ; it is some- 
times met with in England as a casual of cultivated fields. Culms 
1-2 feet. Leaves broad with scabrid margins. Panicle compact 
ovoid or lobed, about an inch long, bristly. Spikelets 4 inch long, 
& 
