Agrostis. | , LXXXIX. GRAMINES, 517 
erect, 1 to 2 feet high, with a narrow, slender panicle, always contracted 
except during the moment the flowers are expanded. Glumes narrow, and 
more pointed than in A. alba, the lowest always longer than the second, 
the flowering one with a fine awn at its base, usually slightly protruding 
beyond the outer glumes. Palea very minute. 
On dry heaths, in western Hurope, from Spain and Portugal to Holland. 
In Britain, only in the south-western counties of England, extending east- 
ward to Surrey. FV. summer. 
4, 4. Spica-venti, Linn, (fig. 1183). Silky Agrostis—A rather tall, 
slender, and most elegant annual, with rather narrow, flat leaves. Panicle 
long, and usually spreading, with very slender hair-like branches, and little 
shining spikelets, scarcely a line long, without the awns. Outer glumes 
narrow, very pointed, the second rather larger than the lowest one. 
Flowering glume with a hair-like awn, 3 or 4 times as long as the spikelet. 
Palea small, with a minute, almost microscopic appendage at its base, 
which is the prolongation of the axis of the spikelet. Apera Spica-ventt, 
Adans. 
In fields and sandy pastures, in Europe and Russian Asia, from the 
Mediterranean to the Arctic regions. In Britain, confined to some of the 
eastern counties of England, from York to Hampshire. #1. summer. The 
A. interrupta, Beauv., is a slight variety, with the spikelets more crowded, 
in a narrow panicle, with nearly erect branches. ‘The anthers are also said 
to be shorter, but that character is very variable. It is often found with 
the common form passing gradually into it. 
XIV. GASTRIDIUM. NITGRASS. 
A single species, separated from Agrostis on account of the smooth, 
shining, enlarged base of the outer glumes. 
1. G. lendigerum, Beauv. (fig. 1184.) Awned Nitgrass.—An elegant, 
erect annual, 6 to 8 inches high, with flat leaves. Panicle contracted into 
a loose tapering spike, 2 to 3 inches long, of a pale green, shining with a 
satiny or silvery lustre. Spikelet very crowded. Outer glumes nearly 2 
lines long, narrow, and very pointed, with a short, very shining enlarge- 
ment at the base, the second glume shorter than the lowest. Flowering 
glume very short, broad, and thin, often bearing below the summit an awn 
about the length of the outer glume, but as often without it, Palea nearly 
as long. ! 
In fields and waste places, especially near the sea, but occasionally also 
inland along the valleys of large rivers. Very common in the Mediter- 
ranean region, extending up western France, and in Britain, to South 
Wales, Warwickshire, and Norfolk. F7. summer. 
meee 
XV. PSAMMA, MARAM. 
A single species, sometimes united with Calamagrostis, but more fre- 
quently considered as a distinct genus, characterized by the inflorescence, 
the firmer consistence of the glumes, without any awn to the flowering one. 
1, P. arenaria, Beauy. (fig. 1185). Sea Maram, Maram, Sea Mat- 
weed.—Rootstock creeping. Stems stiff, erect, 2 to 3 feet high, with 
