﻿Root fibrous, tufted. Culms (stems] from 8 or 10 inches to a 

 foot and a half high, slender, upright, very smooth, leafy chiefly 

 towards the bottom. Leaves deep green, strap-spear-shaped, short, 

 flat, roughish. Panicle handsome, upright, much branched, 

 branches very much spreading, somewhat flexuose, slender, and 

 tinged with purple. Spikelets (fig. 1.) tremulous, shining, purple. 

 Florets (fig. 2.) about 7, more or less green or greenish-white at 

 the edges, the iower ones projecting a little beyond the calyx, which 

 renders the spikelet egg-shaped. Calyx-valves ( glumes ) very con- 

 cave, somewhat compressed. Outer valve (palea) of the corolla 

 much like the calyx, but rather smaller ; inner one minute, re- 

 sembling a flat scale within the outer one. 



Sir J. E. Smith mentions having had from Mr. J. E. Bowman 

 a beautiful Welch specimen, whose florets were 12 or more, green 

 and white, with 3 ribs towards each margin, more conspicuous 

 than in the common kind. 



B> iza Media is one of our most elegant and beautiful grasses, 

 but it is of no particular value to the farmer ; it is not uncommon 

 both in damp and dry situations in most parts of England ; in 

 Scotland it is more rare. From experiments, made bv the late Mr. 

 G. Sinclair, with this grass on different kinds of soil, the results 

 of which are given in his very excellent work the Hortus Gramineus 

 Woburnensis, it appears to be better fitted for a poor sandy soil 

 than for a loomy or moist clayey one. “ Its nutritive powers,” 

 says Mr. Sinclair, “are considerable, when compared with other 

 Grasses affecting a similar soil. It is eaten by horses, cows, and 

 sheep. These merits therefore demand attention, and though it is 

 unfit, comparatively, for rich permanent pasture, yet, for poor sandy, 

 and also for poor tenacious soils, where improvement in other re- 

 spects cannot be sufficiently effected to fit them for the production 

 of the superior Grasses, this will be found of value.” 



It is j ustly observed by Mr. Knapp, that “ we have no indigenous 

 plant more universally known than Briza Media ; the Quaking- 

 grass,” says this elegant writer, “ is in the hands of every child, 

 and the peculiar simplicity of its habit, and elegant manner in which 

 the spiculee are disposed, ‘ trembling at Zephyr’s whisp’ring breath,’ 

 render it not unfrequently an associated ornament in the bouquet.” 



If a seed of this Grass be carefully dissected in a microscope, the 

 young plant will be found with its roots and leaves perfectly formed. 

 See Baker’s Microscope Made Easy, p. 252. 



“ Most kinds of seeds must be prepared, in order to discover the 

 minute plants they contain, by steeping them in warm water till 

 their coats can be separated and their seminal leaves opened with- 

 out laceration ; though some few sorts may be dissected better 

 dry.” Ibid. 



