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AGROSTIS Spica venti.
Silky Bent-grafs.
TR1ANDRIA Digynia.
G e n . C har. Cal. of 2 acute valves, tingle-flowered.
Cor. o f 2 unequal valves, larger than the calyx.
Stigmas feathery.
S pe c . C har. Exterior petal furnithed with a flraight
ftiff and very long awn, inlerted below the lum-
nrit. Panicle fpreading.
Syn. A groftis Spica venti. Linn. Sp. Pi. 91. Sm. FI.
Brit. 77. Hudf. 30. With. 126. Hull. 18.
Relh. 26. Abbot. 14.
Gramen miliaceum majus, glumis ariflatis, fpadiceis
et pallidis. Raii Syn. 405.
G a t h e r e d by Mr. Groultin July laft between Kenning-
ton and Camberwell. It is by no means a common grafs, but
is chiefly to be looked for in fandy corn-fields that are occa-
fionally inundated, where its ample thining panicles, elegantly
waving in the wind, betray it at a confiderable diftance. ^ •
Root annual, formed of numerous crooked fibres, peculiarly
thick at their origin. Stems feveral, 2 or 3 feet high, leafy,
fmooth, furnithed with 1 or 2 joints near their bafe. Leaves
often a little downy above, rough to the touch beneath. Stipula
jagged. Panicle varying from 3 inches to a foot in length, the
numerous branches cluttered in feveral alternate fenes one
above the other, their fubdivifions angular and rough. Flowers
extremely numerous, fmall. Glumes greenith-white or pur-
plith. Thofe of the calyx acute, rough on the keel, unequal
in length, though lefs fo than in fome grafles. Outer petal
notched, rough on the keel and margin, bearing on its back,
below the fummit, a very long flraight rough awn, which, as
far as we know, is never wanting. The inner petal is fmooth,
tender, pointed and awnlefs, but has a few fine hairs at its
bale.