À I R A cæspitosa.
Turfy Hair-grass.
TRIANDRIA Digynia.
G en. C har. Cal. o f 2 valves, 2-flowered. Cor. o f 2
valves. Florets without any imperfect one between
them.
Spec. Char. Leaves flat. Panicle spreading. Petals
awned, hairy at the base. A w n straight, short.
Syn. Aira cæspitosa. Linn. Sp. PI. 96. Sm. FI. Brit.
84. Huds.3 4. With. 136. Hull. 20. Relh. 28.
Sibth. 38 . Abbot. 15. Knapp, t. 33.
Gramen miliaceum segetale majus. Raii Syn. 403.
N o t unfrequent in moist shady and hilly places, where it
forms large tufts, flowering in June and July. It may occasionally
be found about the borders of such corn-fields as are
wet and shady, but not so generally as to justify the epithet
segetale, given by the old authors, and which seems to have originated
in some confusion between this grass and Agrostis
Spica-venti, t. 951. Mr. Knapp however informs us that
fl no plant is so universal in all situations in Scotland as this
Aira.”
Root fibrous, tufted. Stems a yard high, erect, smooth,
leafy, with about 2 joints. Leaves narrow, rigid and harsh,
flat, but soon rolled in by drying; smooth beneath; ribbed
and rough above. Stipula cloven. Panicle large and spreading,
not drooping, shining, rough, brownish ; pale in very
shady situations. Flowers numerous and small. Calyx nearly
equal, rough at the back. One floret is sessile, the other
stalked, and the stalk is clothed with hairs reaching beyond
the base of the floret. Corolla jagged at the top, its outer
valve awned at the base.
This is a hard coarse grass, never eaten by cattle but in
eases o f great necessity.