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AGROSTIS alba.
M a r sh Bent-gOrass.
TRIANDRIA Digynia.
G en. C har. Cal. of 2 acute valves, single-flowered.
' Cor. of 2 unequal membranous valves. Stigmas
feathery.
S pec. C har. Pan icle loose. Stem creeping. C a ly x -
valves equal, lanceolate, polished, rou gh at the ke el.
Syn. A g ro s tis alba. Linn. Sp. PI. 93. Sm. FI. Brit. 81.
With. 129. Hull. 18. Relh.27. Sihth.S'l. Abbot. 14.
A . p olymorpha l , palustris. Huds. 32.
Gramen miliaceum majus, paniculâ spadiceâ, et pani-
culâ viridi. Dill, in Raii Syn. 404.
|S. A g ro s tis sylvatica. Huds. ed. 1. 28. Linn. Sp.
PI. 1665.
G ram en miliaceum sylvestre, glumis oblongis. Dill, in
Raii Syn. 404.
N o t rare in ditches and marshy fields. The flowers appear
in July. The root is perennial. Stems several, spreading,
prostrate, or floating, often throwing out fibres from their
lower joints; leafy about their middle; naked and smooth
above. They vary from 1 to 3 feet in length. Leaves rough,
with smooth sheaths. Stipula obtuse, often torn. Panicle
loose and spreading, its branches repeatedly subdivided,
roughish. Flowgrs lanceolate, polished, either white or of a
purplish brown. Calyx-valves nearly equal, acute, their keel
only rough. Corolla of 2 thin unequal valves, generally (but
not invariably) destitute of an awn.
A . sylvatica of Linnaeus is a curious variety of this, whose
corolla is greatly elongated, thickened, and almost of the texture
of a leaf. The calyx also undergoes in some degree a
similar change, and the lower branches of the panicle are drawn
out and naked. It grows in shady places. Other species of
Agrostis are subject to the same kind of change.