87 



HOLCUS LANATUS. 



Linnjeus. Smith. Parnell. Hookee and Abnott. Lindley. 



Koch. Hudson. Withering. Hull. Relhan. Abbot. 



Sibthoep. Curtis. Dickson. Eeichenbach. Babington. Willdenow. 



Knapp. Sinclair. Leers. Host. Schrader. Scheebee. 



plate XXVII. 



The Meadow Soft Grass. 



Holcus — To extract. Lanatus — Woolly. 



A productive Grass, easily cultivated, yet cattle do not like 

 it. It seems to delight to grow in shady situations, especially 

 in light moist soils. 



Common throughout Great Britain and Scotland, France, Italy, 

 and Germany. 



This very beautiful Grass has an upright circular stem, 

 hearing four or five pale green, flat, broad, acute, soft, hairy 

 leaves, with soft downy sheaths, the upper sheath extending 

 considerably beyond its leaf; inflated and having at its apex an 

 obtuse membranous sheath. Joints four, hairy. Inflorescence 

 compound-panicled, green, red, or pink in colour. Panicle up- 

 right, triangular in shape, compact and close when young, and 

 spreading when more mature. Branches hairy. Spikelets pen- 

 dulous. Two florets, the upper one awned. Calyx consisting 

 of two hairy membranous glumes, the upper one oblong, tipped 

 with a minute bristle. Keel hairy, having a green rib on either 

 side; lower glume crescent-shaped, and destitute of lateral ribs. 

 Two equal-sized palea?. Upper floret smallest, and elevated on 

 a lengthy naked footstalk, having a dorsal awn of about half 

 the length of the palea, commencing a little beneath the apex, 



