/ ° 6 [ 848 ]
ALOPECURUS agreftis.
Slender Fox-tail-grafs.
TRIANDRIA Dlgynia.
-Gen. C har. Cal. o f at valves, containing a Angle
floret. Cor. o f 1 valve.
Spec. Char. Stem eredt, roughifh. Spike perfectly
Ample, taper. Glumes o f the calyx nearly naked,
united at their bafe, dilated at the keel.
S y n . Alopecurus agreftis. Linn. Sp. PI. 89. Sm. FI.
Brit. 73. Hudf. ay. With. 1 19. Hull. 16. Relh. 24.
Sibth. 35. Abbot. 12. Mart. Fl. Ruß. t. 22.
A . myofuroides. Curt. Lond. fa ß . 2. t. 7.
Gramen myofuroides n. 1 et 2. Raii Syn. 397.
A N A T IV E of corn-fields and waflc ground, flowering in
July, and the root is annual.
This grafs differs very materially from the Meadow Fox-tail
figured in our 759th. plate; for as that by its perennial duration,
fituation in meadows and paftures, and excellent qualities for
fodder, may be efteemed one of the moft valuable, this on the
contrary is rather to be reckoned a weed, exhaufting the
ftrength of arable land to no purpofe; for, whether it might
be acceptable to cattle or not, it cannot be collected for their
tife, nor has anyperfon yet thought of cultivating it as a crop.
The root is fmall and fibrous. Stems feveral, about a foot
and half high, erect, leafy, roughifh to the touch, though
fcarcely to the fight, in the upper part. Leaves pale-green,
rough on the upper fide, with an oblong downy ftipula. Spike
near 3 inches long, very {lender and tapering, perfectly fimple,
not branched, often of a purplifti hue. Calyx-glumes united
at their bafe, a little downy at the edge, but not fo much
fringed as in A . pratenßs; their keel dilated. Corolla fmooth,
with an awn from its bafe.
The n. 2. of Ray appears from Buddie’s Herbarium to
be merely a ftarved brown variety, from a barren foil.