200 
THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
fore well worth knowing. It is of slender make, with roughish 
stem, the panicle green, much branched, the stems of the spikeleta 
long and wiry, the leaves taper pointed. 
There are three species (so-called) of Quaking grass, and they 
are, perhaps, the loveliest of all the grasses that find their way into 
the garden. The Great Quaking grass, Briza maxima, is nothing 
other than a robust form of the common Quaking grass, Briza media , 
and this being the queen of British grasses, we present a portrait 
of her face, life-size. The Cocksfoot grass, Dactylis glomerata , you 
will soon learn to distinguish as a wild plant, by observation of the 
low, tufted, broad-leaved, variegated grass of the same name grown in 
gardens. 
The Crested Dogstail, Cynosurus crista/us, is peculiarly distinct, 
with rigid, hard-looking spike of a lilac hue. It grows everywhere, 
and is everywhere welcome for the valuable herbage it affords. 
Sheep’s Fescue, Festuca ovina, is a peculiarly fine-leaved grass 
COMMON QTTAEING GRASS. 
growing in tufts on sandy soils, where it constitutes a most elegant 
rich green herbage. The panicles are unattractive. It varies much 
in character in different localities, and a blue-leaved variety is grown 
in gardens. In Greenwich Park three or four varieties may be 
found, one of them having leaves as fine as hairs. On heath lands 
a viviparous form of this grass may often be met with. This variety 
does not produce flowers. Everywhere, by the sides of dusty roads, 
and on old brick walls and chimney-stacks, a rather ugly, short, 
sturdy, barley-like grass will be found, but scarcely ever does the 
vagrant trespass on the meadows. It is the Wall Barley, or Way 
Bennet, Hordeum murinum. This is the grass that children put up 
their sleeves to vary the monotony of school-work. 
Finally, to dispose of the grasses, mention must be made of the 
Darnel, Lolium temulentum, which is by no means common, though 
plentiful in some localities. The leaves are flat and rough on the 
upper side. The stem rises two or three feet high, bearing two 
