ALOPECURUS ALPINUS. 



Smith. Hooker and Arnott. Don. Knapp. Paenell. Lindlet. 



PLATE III. B. 



Alopecurus ovalus, Knapp. 



The Alpine Fox-tail Grass. 



Alopecurus — Fox-tail. Alpinus — Alpine. 



A rare northern Grass, growing in marshy situations on 

 mountains at an elevation of three thousand eight hundred feet 

 above the sea. Sheep will feed upon the lower leaves, rejecting 

 the stem of this Grass. It does not appear to be found below 

 the elevation of two thousand five hundred feet. 



From the circumstance that Alopecurus alpinus will not grow 

 except on high mountains, it is useless as an agricultural 

 Grass. 



In Great Britain it is peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland, 

 about Loch-na-Gar, Clova mountains, Canlochen, Glen Prosen, 

 Ben Lawers, and Loch Lee. Found also in Greenland, Spitz- 

 bergen, and in the north of British America. 



Panicle upright, not an inch long, oblong, soft and silky. 

 Spikelets upright, oval, placed all round the rachis, of one-awned 

 floret of the same length as the calyx. Calyx consisting of two 

 acute hairy glumes of the same size, three-ribbed. Floret con- 

 sisting of one palea, with two ribs on either side, and sometimes 

 furnished with a slender dorsal awn. Filaments three and slender. 

 Anthers protruding, and notched at the extremities. Styles 

 united and short. Stigmas two, lengthy, and feathery. Seeds 

 ovate. Stem upright, smooth, circular, bent at the base. Stem 



D 



