Root fibrous, tufted. Culms f stems J several, about a foot high, 
upright, slender, with 2 or 3 knots, or joints, round, rough with 
very minute bristly hairs, slightly striated, and clothed with the 
sheaths of the leaves. Leaves numerous, upright, long, very nar- 
row, bristle-shaped, sharp pointed, dark green, rough with minute 
bristly hairs, which point towards the apex. Sheaths striated, 
smooth, very long, especially the uppermost, which is also con- 
siderably dilated, and envelopes the youm panicle , rising above it 
when in flower : the leaf being recurved, pendulous, involute and 
striated. Slipula, oblong, blunt. Panicle simple, upright, of C or 
7 rather large flowers. Glumes (fig. 1.) nearly equal, spear-shaped, 
concave, nerved, smooth, tapering at the point into a membranous 
very tender awn. Palece (see fig. 2.) nearly equal, the outer ter- 
minated by an a wn about a foot long, the lower part of which, for 
about 2 inches and a half, or 3 inches up, is smooth and twisted, 
the other part clothed with very fine, white, soft, pellucid, silky, 
diverging hairs. Seed (fig. 6.) oblong, nearly cylindrical, smooth, 
invested by the permanent, hardened outer palea, with which, by 
means of its long feathery awn, which serves as a sail, it is wafted 
about, till at length penetrating the soil by means of the barbed 
bristles at its base, the seed is buried in the earth, and the awn, 
separating at the joint, is carried away by the wind. 
Mr. Sinclair says he never could obtain plants from seed of 
this grass when sown in the ordinary way on soils in open situ- 
ations ; but that in pots, and in favourable situations, the seeds 
vegetated very well, and he thinks it may probably be owing to 
some peculiarity of this kind in the seed, that the plant is not now 
to be found in a wild state in this country. 
Though, so far as Mr. Sinclair’s experiments prove, it cannot 
be propagated by seed on a lai ge scale, yet by parting the roots, he 
says, it may soon be propagated to any extent ; but its agricultural 
merits appear to be so inconsiderable, as to rank it with the in- 
ferior grasses. 
The exceedingly beautiful feather-like awns of this grass bear 
such a great resemblance to the plumes of the Bird of Paradise, as 
frequently to he substituted by ladies for that elegant ornament, and 
have procured it a place in the flower-gardens of the curious. 
This interesting plant is a native of Austria, Hungary, Germany, 
France, Italy, Spain, Barbary, and Siberia ; growing on alpine or 
dry sandy places, that are much exposed to the warmth of the sun. 
In the Dillenian Herbarium, in the Library of the Oxford Bo- 
tanic Garden, there are specimens of this grass, which appear to 
have been sent to Dillenius from Dr. Richardson, with this note, 
probably in the handwriting of Dr. Richardson, attached : “ Found 
upon the rocks of Long Sleadale nigh Kendale in Westmoreland, 
from whence I brought it into my garden.” As it has never since 
been found wild diere, or in any olher part of Britain, it can scarcely 
now be considered a native of this country *. 
* Said to grow on hills between Ullswater and Hawswater, Cumberland; but 
sought unsuccessfully. Watson’s New Humanist’s Guide, p. 319. 
