AIRA CA:SPITOSA.{%c.p^..
Turfy Hair-grass.
Spec. Char. Panicle tall, and expanding; leaves very rigid, and armed'; florets hairy
at the base.
Amid all our harsh grasses this Aira claims a primal station, and only necessity compels the hard
fed animal to taste it as food, and even then it is but sparingly cropped, and chiefly the younger
and less pungent shoots.------ The leaves are seldom quite flat, but are twisted, or at least have a
tendency thereto, and are transparent when held to the light, excepting where they are rendered opake
by the strong ribs which project from the inner surface: the florets having tufts of hair at their base,
is an excellent criterion of the species to the microscopic botanist.
Aira caespitosa is generally to be considered as a water-loving plant, being most commonly found
in those hollows where water is retained after the winter rains, but it is likewise to be met with on
the dryest hills.— —Nature seems to have armed the Turfy Hair-grass for reasons unknown to us:
were its virtues such that it might serve for the pasturage of an animal, it would claim some esteem,
as the foliage is abundant, and it commonly is the only vegetable that has escaped being destroyed by
the long stagnation of water in pits and hollows.- —To the industrious o f another day this cause may
be disclosed, and why a plant applicable to no known purpose, and possessing no obvious virtue,
should be so extensively spread abroad, and so inviolably armed! We observed no plant so universal
to all situations in Scotland as this Aira.
A, part of a Leaf ribbed on the inner side, and serrated on the edges.
B, the Calyx.
C, the two Corollae.