British grasses : an introduction to the study of the Gramineae of Great Britain and Ireland / by Margaret Plues.

  • Plues, Margaret.
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: British grasses : an introduction to the study of the Gramineae of Great Britain and Ireland / by Margaret Plues. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    purple; joints usually four; leaves linear, rough, acute, rather glaucous, the upper ones short, upper leaves much shorter than the others, the upper sheaths very long and close; ligules short, abrupt; panicle about two inches long, dense, a little contracted at each end, cylindrical, glaucous-green with a tinge of purple; spikelets small, flat- tened, crowded; outer glumes equal, narrow-lanceolate, tapering and terminating in a sharp point or minute awn, the midrib hairy but not on the lower part; flowering glume smaller, elliptical, fine-ribbed ; palea entire at margin, ellip- tical, smaller than the flowering glume, with a minute bristle at the base; ovary hairy above; filaments long, capillary; anthers long, purple ; styles rather short, feathery nearly to base; scales long and narrow. This pretty species is rare in our islands, favouring the dry sandy or chalky fields of Norfolk and Cam- bridgeshire almost exclu- sively. The violet colour of the upper part of the culm is very pleasing, and is also a good distinctive feature; it is to be regretted that this is not used as a foundation for the specific name. It is indigenous in Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Rus- sia. As an agricultural grass, it has no desirable qualities. It is distinguished from P. pratense by the absence of awns on the outer glumes, and of teeth on the flowering