67 



AIRA CiESPITOSA. 



Linnsus. Parnell. Smith. Hooker. Arnott. Greville. Xnapp. 



WlLLDENOW. SCHEADER. LEERS. HOST. EhBHART. 



Oeder. Hudson. Withering. Hull. Sibthorp. Abbot. Kelhan. 



PLATE XX. 



Deschampsia ccespitosa, Lindley. 



Gramen segetale, Gebarde. 



Aira — To destroy. Ccespitosa — Tufted. 



The Tufted Hair Grass. 



Aira. Linnaeus. — The Hair Grass is named from the Greek, and signifies 

 to destroy, but why it received this unwelcome name is apparently uncertain. 

 There are six British species. Having a spreading panicle, of which the 

 spikelets are laterally compressed. There are two florets present in each 

 spikelet, with a third imperfect rudiment between them; the outer palea 

 of each floret is rounded at the back and furnished with an awn. 



A veky handsome Grass, the flowers of which are well 

 adapted for decoration, being very graceful. It is a common 

 species in England, Scotland, and Ireland, of no agricultural 

 merit, being coarse and rough, with but little nutritive proper- 

 ties. It will flourish in almost any situation, but prefers damp 

 fields, where it grows into large tufts, and is known to agri- 

 culturists as hassacks, a Grass difficult to destroy. 



It is a native of Norway, Sweden, Lapland, France, Italy, 

 Germany, North America, and the United States. Nowhere 

 does it flourish so luxuriantly as on the banks of a brook. 



The plant forms a large coarse tuft, and, as it is not eaten 

 by cattle except when nothing else can be procured, a field 

 in which it abounds has a singularly unsightly, and to farmers 

 unwelcome appearance. 



The root is perennial and fibrous. Stem upright, circular, and 



