BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 337 
No. 30. — Notes on Certain Physical Characters of two 
Common ‘Grasses. By the late Lesrer Sackerr Forp, 
B.A.S., M.D., Demonstrator in Anatomy at the Bussey 
Institution. * 
I. The awn of Holcus lanatus (velvet-grass or meadow soft-grass) . 
It is customary in botanical text-books to depict the awn of the 
so-called velvet-grass, meadow soft-grass, or wooly soft- grass 
(Holcus lanatus) as bent or curved or hooked at the outer extrem- 
ity. But when examined as it stands in the fields, at least while 
the plant has not yet passed its prime, the awn will be found to be 
straight and in no wise bent or curved. It is in the process of 
drying that the tip of the awn often curls over. ‘The descriptions 
in many of the books are not only erroneous as to the fact, but by 
giving undue prominence to the curled awn they are liable to mis- 
lead those beginners in botany who are so situated that they can 
study the fresh and unwilted grass, or who happen to meet with 
specimens which have dried or wilted under such conditions that 
most of the awns have remained straight. In general, rapid dry- 
ing seems to favor the curling of the awns. By bringing the re- 
cently plucked grass into a warm room. placing it in hot sunshine 
and watching with a magnifying-glass, it is easy to arrange mat- 
ters so that the awns can actually be seen to curl. As soon as the 
process has once begun it goes on rather rapidly, and it may read- 
ily be exhibited to a class. It was while studying under these 
conditions a specimen of grass that could not be made to corre- 
spond with the descriptions in the books that the straight awns of 
the specimen were seen to suddenly resolve themselves into the 
conventional hooked awns of H. lanatus. 
The awns do not by any means invariably curl in drying. and 
consequently it would not be strictly correct to say that in dried 
specimens the awns are bent; the description should read, rather, 
* It happened that these botanical observations of my lamented friend 
Ford were made so immediately under my own eye that I have no hesitancy 
in reporting them and vouching for their correctness. My only scruple is 
lest, through my own ignorance of matters botanical, I may omit some detail 
which might seem important to an adept. I can but wish withal that it were 
in my power to convey an adequate idea of the acumen, the accuracy, and 
the high scientific spirit which the man brought to bear upon these simple 
studies as upon everything which he touched. —F. H. Srorer. 
