GRAMINE7E. 



949 



1. Northern Holygrass. Hierochloe borealis, Eoem. et Sch. 

 (Fig. 1148.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 2641.) 



A perennial, from f to H f ee ^ high> 

 with a creeping rootstock, and flat leaves, 

 usually short. Panicle spreading, about 

 2 inches long, with slender branches. 

 Spikelets ovate, of a shining brown ; 

 the outer empty glumes very pointed, 

 near 3 lines long, and glabrous. Two 

 lower flowering glumes attaining to the 

 length of the outer ones, but rough on 

 the outside with short hairs, each en- 

 closing a 2-nerved palea and 3 stamens. 

 Uppermost flowering glume smaller and 

 nearly glabrous, enclosing a still smaller. 

 2-nerved palea, 2 stamens, and the pistil. 



In mountain pastures and waste places, 

 at high latitudes, in northern and Arctic 

 Europe, Asia, and America, descending 

 southwards to northern Germany, and 

 to the mountains of south-eastern Ger- 

 many, and reappearing in New Zealand. In Britain, only near Thurso 

 in Caithness, where it has been recently detected by Mr. E. Dick. FL 

 summer. 



Fig. 1148. 



Y. ANTHOXANTH. ANTHOXANTHUM. 



Spikelets 1-flowered, narrow, pedicellate, but crowded into a cylin- 

 drical spike or spike-like panicle. Two outer glumes unequal, keeled, 

 pointed but not awned ; the 2 next also empty, shorter than the outer 

 ones, narrow, hairy ; one with a small awn on its back, the other with 

 a longer awn arising from its base ; flowering glume still shorter, 

 much broader, obtuse, and awnless. Palea narrow and scarious, with 

 a central nerve like the glumes. Stamens only 2. 



The genus consists but of a single species. 



1. Sweet Anthoxanth. Anthoxanthum odoratum, Linn. 

 (Fig. 1149.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 647. Vernal Grass.) 



A rather slender, erect perennial, 1 to 2 feet high, and quite glabrous. 



