A natural history of British grasses . hose upper portions are furnished sparingly with slender yetconspicuous white hairs. Upper sheath shorter than its leaf,and having at its apex a short membranous ligule. Inflores-cence simple-panicled. Panicle slightly pendulous, with fewspikelets on long, slender, rough footstalks, the branches longand slender, rising usually in pairs from the rachis. Spikeletsupright, oval in shape, consisting of a perfect and an imperfectawnless floret hid within the calyx. Calyx of two reddish brown,five-ribbed, smooth glumes. Floret of two palcse. Length from 84 MELI
A natural history of British grasses . hose upper portions are furnished sparingly with slender yetconspicuous white hairs. Upper sheath shorter than its leaf,and having at its apex a short membranous ligule. Inflores-cence simple-panicled. Panicle slightly pendulous, with fewspikelets on long, slender, rough footstalks, the branches longand slender, rising usually in pairs from the rachis. Spikeletsupright, oval in shape, consisting of a perfect and an imperfectawnless floret hid within the calyx. Calyx of two reddish brown,five-ribbed, smooth glumes. Floret of two palcse. Length from 84 MELICA U]SirLORA. twelve to eighteen inches. Root perennial and creeping. Flowers in the middle of June, and becomes ripe at the endof July. It is distinguished from Melica nutans in the simple panicle,and in the calyx containing only one perfect floret. This species flourishes luxuriantly about Ambleside, and alsoin a wood near Critch, in Derbyshire; where it grows well it isvery beautiful. The illustration is from a Derbyshire HOLCUS MOLLI XXVI 85 IIOLCUS MOLLIS. LiNN^us. HooKEE AND Arnott. Smith. ParnelI;. Ltndley. Koch. Willdenow. Curtis. Knapp. Sinclair. ScHRADER. Leers. Host. Schreber. Babington. Hudson. Abbot. Withering. Relhan. Hull. Sibthorp. Dickson. PLATE XXVI. The Creeping Soft Grass. Holcus—To extract. Mollis—So{t. HoLCtrs. Linnceus.—Of the genus Holcus, or Soft-Grass, England canboast of only two species, both, exceedingly interesting plants. The nameis derived from the Greek, and signifies to extract; the genus taking thissingular name because it was supposed to have the property of drawing outthorns from the flesh. A Grass of no agricultural value, as cattle refuse to eat it,whilst its long creeping roots speedily impoverish the soil. Itsfavourite habitat is sandy, light, barren soil. Common in Britain, Sweden, Denmark, France, Germany,and Italy, Stem upright, circular, and smooth, bearing four or five flat,broad, acute, soft, roughish, pale green l
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1858
