GEAMINE.ft. 959 



Britain, and apparently confined to the coasts of Anglesea and the 

 Channel Islands. Fl. spring. 



VI. HARE'S-TAIL. LAGUEUS. 



A single species, with the characters nearly of Smallreed, except the 

 inflorescence, which is that of Foxtail. 



1. Ovate Hare's-tail. Lagurus ovatus, Linn. (Fig. 1162.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t, 1334.) 



An erect annual, from a few inches to 

 above a foot high ; the leaves hoary 

 with a soft down, their sheaths rather 

 swollen. Spikelets 1-flowered, very nu- 

 merous, and closely crowded in an ovoid 

 or oblong, softly hairy head, § to 1 inch 

 long. Outer gliimes subulate or slightly 

 dilated at the base, about 4 lines long, 

 feathered with long soft hairs. Flowering 

 glume much shorter, and thin, cleft into 

 2 awn-like points about the length of 

 the outer glumes, and bearing on its 

 back a long, hair-like, bent awn, usually 

 at least twice the length of the spikelet. 



In maritime sands, and waste places, 

 common all round the Mediterranean, 

 and extending up the west coast of Eu- 

 rope to the Channel Islands. Fl. early 

 summer. 



Fig. 1162. 



XII. BEARDGRASS. POLYPOGON. 



Spikelets 1-flowered, densely crowded in a spike-like or slightly 

 branched panicle, otherwise as in Agrostis, except that the outer 

 glumes end in a fine awn. 



A genus of very few species, but widely spread over a great part of 

 the globe. 



Awns three or four times as long as the spikelets . . . . 1. Annual B. 

 Awns scarcely longer than the glumes themselves .... 2. Perennial B. 



