150 TRIANDRIA. DIGYNIA. Alopec-urus. 
{Awn three or four times the length of the blossom. Stems one and a half 
to two feet high. E.) Spike two to four inches long, hardly one fourth 
of an inch broad, of a kind of lead colour, (often purplish; tapering at 
each end. E.) Calyx one leaf, divided rather more than half way down. 
Var. 2. Spikes shorter. Awns bowed back. Ray Syn. p. 397. n. 2. 
(A. agrestis /3. FI. Brit. E.) 
Slender Fox-tail Grass. Corn fields and road sides. Pastures in the 
Isle of Wight, very common. A. July.* 
A. bulbo^sus. Straw upright; spike cylindrical; root bulbous. 
{E. Sot. 124-9. E.)— Barr. 699. 1—Ray 20. 2— Mont. 54. 
Root not creeping nor sending out suckers. Straw never striking root at 
the joints, never knee-jointed. Spike dark glaucous green, but not so 
black as in the bulbous variety of A. geniculatus. Anthers deep glaucous 
blue, in the variety of A. geniculatus the colour of rusty iron. Woodw. 
{Blossom of one obtuse notched glume, with a bent awn from its back, 
twice as long as the calyx. E. Bot. E.) Spike one to one inch and 
a half long. Awns barely twice the length of the calyx; little fruit- 
stalks branched. (No species can be more invariably distinct. Sm. E.) 
Bulbous Fox-tail Grass. A. bulhosus. Linn. In wet salt marshes, 
rare; always growing in water. In salt marsh near Yarmouth. Mr. 
Woodward. (Marshes near Weymouth. Mr. Lambert. In Cardiff 
marshes, and near Aust Passage. Rev. J. Lightfoot. E.) 
P. June—July.f 
A. genicula'tus. Spiked straw geniculate. 
Var. 1. Awns twice as long as the blossom: root fibrous. 
Curt. 339— FI. Dan. 861—( E. Bot. 1250. E.)— H. Ox. viii. 4. row 2. 15— 
Leers 2. 7— Scheuch. 2. 6. C, D, E. 
{Florets smaller than in any other species. Hook. Leaves much broader 
and shorter than in the last. Stems twelve to eighteen inches long; 
floating or prostrate, ascending towards the ends. Roots of long fibres. 
E.) Upper leaves one to one inch and a half above the sheathing part. 
Spikes one inch and half long. Awns full twice as long as the calyx. 
Anthers purplish, changing to dull yellow. 
(Floating Fox-tail Grass. Geniculate Fox-tail Grass. Welsh: 
Rhon-wellt y cadnaw cymmalog. E.) In meadows common, and floating 
widely on the surface of shallow ditches and ponds. In dry situations, 
as on walls, &c. the leaves and stem are greatly diminished in size, and 
the roots become bulbous, with excessively long fibres. This transmuta¬ 
tion has sometimes occasioned A. geniculatus to be mistaken for the real 
* A very troublesome weed in many places amongst wheat, and execrated by the 
farmers under the name of Black Bent ; Mr. S wayne; or Spear-grass. (It is most preva¬ 
lent in beggared soils, and will bear to be repeatedly cut down in the same season. 
The best remedy is careful husbandry, and bringing the land into good heart. (The 
herbage is comparatively of no value, and appears to be left untouched by every de¬ 
scription of cattle. A large portion of the seeds of this plant are yearly destroyed by 
a minute orange-coloured maggot. The seeds are acceptable also to pheasants, par¬ 
tridges, and smaller birds. E.) 
f (This plant seems by nature a meadow grass; and Dr. Anderson suggests that, as 
its matted roots give an unusual firmness to the surface of the ground, it may be ser¬ 
viceable to prevent soft and moist soils from being poached by the feet of cattle. E.) 
