GRAMINA. 77 
4 to 9 inches long. Spikelets f to 1 inch long. Though the extreme 
examples of the alpine form are very different from A. pratensis of 
lowland pastures, the transition between the two is so gradual that aU 
idea of separating them into species has been given up by common 
consent. 
A third variety, A. bromoides (Ziwn.), is frequent in the south of 
Europe. It has the spikelets smaller, although the florets are usually 
more numerous than in var. a. The glumes and pales are also 
broader in proportion. 
A. pratensis much resembles A. pubescens, but forms dense tufts; 
the leaves are narrower, thicker, with stronger nerves and rough 
edges, and are glaucous above and glabrous. The sheaths also are 
never pubescent, the stems are more rigid, the spikelets larger and 
usually less highly coloured, and the hairs at the base of the Horets 
are much shorter in A. pratensis than in A. pubescens. 
Glabrous Oat- Grass. 
French, Avome des pres. German, Wiesen-Hafer. 
This grass is wrongly named " meadow," as it is seldom if ever found in a position 
that is worthy of that name. It possesses hard cutting leaves. Sinclair says that 
" its nutritive matter contains a less proportion of bitter extractive and saline matters 
than any other of the Oat-grasses that have been submitted to experiment." 
Sub-Genus IIL~EU-AVENA. Gren. & Godr. 
Annual. Spikelets ultimately drooping or nodding, large, scarcely 
compressed. Glumes herbaceous, many-nerved. Lowest spikelet 
perfect. Lower pale subherbaceous, at length coriaceous, not keeled, 
more or less distinctly awned, at least in the lower florets. Caryops • 
fusiform, with a furrow on the inner face, pubescent at the apex. 
SPECIES IV.-A VENA STRIGOSA. Schreb. 
Plate MDCCXL. 
Heidi. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Heir. Vol. I. Tab. CYI. Fi^. 217. 
Billot, Fl. GaU. et Germ. Essicc. No. 2768. 
Danthonia strigosa, Pal de Beam. Agrost. p. 160. 
Annual. Without radical leaves or barren shoots. Leaves broadly 
linear, flaccid, thin, flat, with numerous slender rough ribs, every third, 
fourth, or fifth of which is stronger than the others, green; sheaths 
smooth ; ligule short, laciniate. Panicle erect, lax, permanently , 
secund. Pedicels capillary, mostly shorter than the spikelets. Spike- 
lets drooping, ratlier numerous, opening but Kttie even at the time of 
flowering, 2-flowered, rarely 3-flowered, green, sometimes slightly 
