164 
TRIANDRIA. DIGYNIA. Sesleria. 
Purple Melic Grass. (Irish: Birrah. Welsh: Mdic-ivellt rhuddlas. 
Gaelic: Pund-Glass. E.) Air a ccerulea. Linn. Sp. PI. Huds. Leers. Scop. 
Anindo. Hall. (M. ccerulea. Linn. Mant. Lightf. With. Curt. Sm. 
Willd. Hook. Schrad. Host. Grev. E.) Boggy barren meadows and 
heathy moors, abundant. P. June—July.* 
M. uniflo^ra. (Panicle branched, slightly drooping toward one side ; 
flowers erect. Spikelet with only one perfect floret. 
Curt. 301 —(F. Bot. 10.58— FI. Dan. 1144. E.)— Mont. 2. 1 — H. Ox. viii. 
7. 49— Villars 3— Lob. Adv. Alt. 465. 1— J. B. ii. 434— Park. 1151. 3. 
Little spike of neutral Jlorets, inversely-egg-shaped, between the blossom 
and the inner valve of the calyx, together with its fruit-stalk as long as 
the blossom, composed of the rudiments of three and even four florets, 
each consisting of two membranous valves similar in shape to those of the 
perfect floret; each supported on a fruit-stalk of its own, rising from the 
base of the inner valve of the last rudiment; and each as small again as 
the floret below it. No stamens or pistils in any of them. From fifteen 
to eighteen inches high, or more. Straw angular, ascending. Panicle 
of few flowers, scattered, three to five inches long. Bt'anches bowed 
whilst in flower, afterwards upright. (Flowers tremulous, variegated 
with green, white, and reddish brown. A somewhat larger plant than 
M. nutans , and with broader leaves. E.) 
Wood Melic Grass. (Welsh: Mclic-wellt y goedwig. E.) M. Lobelii. 
Villars. M. nutans. Huds. Woods and hedges, not uncommon. 
Lanes in Devonshire, very frequent. (Between Leatham and Blythe- 
Hall, near Ormskirk. Dr. Bostock. Anglesey. Welsh Bot. Roslin 
woods, opposite Hawthornden. Grev. Edin. In the lanes and woods of 
Brislington, between Wick and St. Ann’s, &c. near Bristol. Plantations 
of T. Pearson, Esq. Tettenhall, Staffordshire. E.) P. May—July. 
SESLE'RIA.i; Involucr. two-leaved: Cal. two-valved, with 
from one to three florets : Bloss. Outer valve tridentate ; 
inner valve bidentate : Styles combined. E.) 
S. CuEURu'lea. Straw undivided; spike egg-oblong; (imbricated : 
bracteas alternate. E.) 
Dick. H. S.—Jacq. PI. Bar. 21—(E. Bot . 1613. E.)—C. B. Pr. 21. 1. and 
Th. 153—Park. 1152. 6—Scheuch. 2. 9. A , B. 
Spike from half to nearly one inch long. Seed hairy. Calyx valves termi¬ 
nating in awn-like points. Hall. Florets on short fruit-stalks, purplish, 
or brownish white. Calyx containing mostly two florets, sometimes a little 
longer, at others rather shorter than the florets; edges and keel bearded. 
* Horses, sheep, and goats eat it. Chermes graminis is found upon it. Linn. (For 
pasture or hay Mr. Sinclair proves it to be of very inferior value. English cows and 
sheep reject it. E.) In the turf moors below Glastonbury, in great abundance. I he 
country people make of the straws of this grass a neat kind of besoms, which they sell 
to the housewives in the neighbourhood, as a cheap and no despicable substitute for 
hair brooms. Mr. Swayne. (In some of the Scottish Isles it is manufactured into ropes 
for fishing nets. E.) Flourishes in the neighbourhood of the copper works at Parys 
mountain in Anglesey, while almost every other vegetable, even Lichens, are injured 
or destroyed. Penn, Wales, ii. 265. (In the Highland sheep-walks it luxuriates, and 
valuable. Dr. Walker. E.) 
f (In honour of Leonard Sesler, a Venetian physician, 1745. E.) 
