Lightf. FI. Scot. v. i. p. 105. — Mart. FI. Rust. t. 7. — Abbot’s FI. Bedf. p. 25. — 
Relh. FI. Cant. (3rd ed.) p. 45. — Purt. Mid. FI. v. i. p. 84. — Murr. North. FI. p. 
78 .— Gramen nodosum, avenaced. panicula, Ray’s Syn. p. 406. — Scheuchz. 
Agrost. p. 237. t. 4. f. 27, 28. — Gramen avenaceum, panicula acerosd, semine 
papposa, Dill, in Ray’s Syn. p. 406. — Gramen caninum nodosum, Johns. Ger. 
p. 23, with a figure. — Gramen avenaceum elatius, jubd longu splendente, 
Moris, r. iii. p. 214. sect. 8. t. 7. f. 37. — Gramen avenaceum elatius, radice 
tuberculis pradita, Moris, ibid. f. 38. 
Localities. — In pastures, hedges, and by road-sides ; common. 
Perennial. — Flowers in June and July. 
Root fibrous, downy, knotty, from the swollen joints of the base 
of the culm. Culm from 2 to 3 feet high, or more, smooth, simple, 
leafy, jointed, the joints usually smooth, but sometimes downy. 
Leaves of the culm 6 or 7 inches to a foot long, and about a quarter 
of an inch broad, striated, rough, especially at the margins, their 
tipper surface with a few scattered, slender, white hairs. Sheaths 
long, striated, smooth, with a few long, deflexed hairs on the 
margin at their summits, just below the stipula. Stipula ( ligula ) 
short, blunt. Panicle long, upright, or a little drooping, loose, 
shining ; its branches numerous, rough, unequal, half-whorled, and 
directed to one side. Calyx-glumes nearly white, almost trans- 
parent ; the inferior one smallest, spear-shaped, single-nerved, 
nearly smooth, with a rough keel ; superior one larger, about as 
long as the florets, pointed, bifid, with 3 rough, reddish-green ribs. 
Palece of the Corolla of nearly the same shape as the glumes of the 
calyx, but larger; the lower floret (fig. 1, b.) least perfect, but most 
conspicuously awned ; their inner paleae narrow, membranous, and 
flat. Jlnthcrs strap-shaped, cloven, hanging out at one side. Styles 
very short. Stigmas (fig. 5.) long, spreading horizontally, fea- 
thery on the upper side. Seed (fig. 7.) nearly cylindrical, coated 
with the hardened corolla (see fig. 6). 
Jlrrhenathlrum bulbosum, of Dumortier, Lindley, and some 
other authors, differs from this only in being a larger plant with a 
bulbous base to the culm, and occasionally hairy joints. 
The prodace of this grass is said to be very great, bat it is so excessively bitter 
as to be unpalatable to cattle in general ; and the bulbous-rooted variety is a 
very troublesome weed when it occurs on arable land ; nevertheless, the ani- 
mated description of Miss Kent, has conferred on it no inconsiderable degree of 
interest. “ I have seen it,” observes that elegant writer, (in Loud. Mag. Nat. 
Hist. v. i. p.237.), “ six feet high, with leaves two feet long, and more than 
one inch wide, with its panicle of flowers gently drooping to one side, at least 
one foot six inches in length, and so finely polished, that, but for their green 
colour, we might think it was composed of silver oats. Yet it is not green ; 
neither is it white, nor gold-colour, nor purple, but it is a union of all these : it 
is the offspring of silver and of gold, of the amethyst and the emerald. It is, 
indeed, very variable ; but, in the full pride of its beauty, this grass is truly 
magnificent. The light purple pyramids that quiver in every field and meadow, 
must be well known to every reader. In fine, the student who has leisure to 
investigate their beauties, will find the family of grasses peculiarly interesting, 
and much more various and beautiful than, fiotn the apparent homeliness of 
many, they might be supposed to be.” 
