TRIANDRIA. DIGYNIA. Hierochloe. 159 
awl-shaped, simple. Seed very minute, abortive. Curt. Panicle from 
two to eight inches long, and from one and a half to three and a half 
inches broad. Calyx husks unequal. Both florets on short pedicles. 
Meadow Soft Grass. (Welsh: MasweUt sypwraidd. E.) Meadows and 
pastures, common. P. June—July.* 
H. moi/lis. Root creeping: (leaves and joints slightly downy: calyx 
partly naked; lower floret perfect, awnless; upper with a 
sharply-bent (geniculate) protruding awn. E.) 
Dicks . H. S. — FI. Dan. 1059 — Curt. 323 —■(. Hort. Gram. — E. Bot. 1170. 
E.)— Leers 7.7 — Schreb. 20. 2 — Scheuch. 4. 25. 
(Whole plant more slender and less downy than the former. E.) Panicle 
three to five inches high, and one and a half to two and a half broad. 
Calyx husks nearly equal. (The creeping root and obvious recurved awn 
readily distinguish this species from the preceding. The young Bo¬ 
tanist would expect to find this plant in the genus Aira, and certainly not 
without some reason; (but a permanent distinction may be observed in 
the coating of the seed by the cartilaginous vestige of the blossom. E.) 
Creeping Soft Grass. Welsh: Maswellt rhedegog. E.) Corn-fields, 
hedges, and woods, (in light barren soil. E.) P. July—-Aug.t 
H. avena'ceus. Calyx two-flowered; awn of the barren floret genicu¬ 
late, fixed to the back of the blossom. Gmel. See Avena elatior. 
(HIEROCHLOE.J Cal. two-valved, three-flowered. Bloss, 
two-valved ; lateral florets triandrous ; pistil none ; ter¬ 
minal (or central) one perfect, diandrous. Br. 
H. borea'lis. Panicle somewhat unilateral: peduncles smooth. Per¬ 
fect florets awnless; barren ones slightly awned; outer valve of 
the blossom ciliated at the margin. 
Hort. Gram.*—FI. Dan. 963. 
About a foot high, smooth. Leaves strap-spear-shaped. Panicle brownish, 
shining. Spikets broadly ovate. Cal. valves ovate, acute, rather un¬ 
equal, sometimes a little serrated at the point. Florets rather longer 
than the cal. and the outer valves of a firmer texture, scabrous when 
highly magnified. Central floret the smallest. Br. Hook. Nectary in 
two deep unequal linear segments. Leaves flat. Sm. 
Northern Holy Grass. H. borealis. Roem. and Schultz. Hook. Sm. 
* This grass, though vegetating rather late in the season, produces an abundant crop; 
but it is not agreeable to cattle, and makes a soft, spongy hay, unfit for horses. It 
abounds chiefly in light and moist soils, such as turf or peat land. A plot of it, sown by 
the writer, was entirely killed by a long frost. Bev. G. Swayne. (Sir H. Davy has shown 
that its nutritive matter consists of mucilage and sugar, and that the nutritive matter of 
grasses most liked by cattle have either a sub-acid or saline taste ; whence it is inferred 
that this grass might be rendered more palatable by a sprinkling of salt at the time the 
hay is carried ; a hint worthy the attention of those possessing pastures in which this 
grass naturally prevails to the exclusion of more acceptable produce, Hort. Gram. E.) 
t (Sinclair considers it the true Couch-grass of light sandy soil, producing little or no 
lattermath, disliked by cattle, and difficult to extirpate. Pigs are fond of the roots, 
which are nutritive, and have the flavour of new-made meal. E.) 
$ (From iepos, sacred, and or %Ao?j, a grass; a name established by Gmelin, 
because the plant is strewed before the doors of churches in Prussia on festival days. E.) 
