A I R A praecox.
Early Hair-grass.
TRIANDRIA Digynia.
G en. Char. Cal. of 2 valves, 2-flowered. Cor. o f 2
valves. Florets without any imperfect one between
them.
Spec. C har. Leaves slender and tapering, with angular
sheaths. Panicle spike-shaped. Florets sessile, nearly
naked at their base, awned at the back.
Syn. Aira prsecox. Linn. Sp. PI. 97. Sm. FI.
Brit. 87. Huds. 36. With. 137. Hull. 20.
Relh. 29. Sihth. 39. Abbot. 15. Curt. Lond.
fasc. 3. t. 7. Dicks. H. Sicc. fasc . 4. 4.
Gramen parvum praecox, panicula laxa canescente.
Raii Syn. 407- t. 22. f . 2.
C o m m o n on dry gravelly ground in the spring, flowering
in May or early in June, and soon after withering away.
Root fibrous, annual. Stems several, 2 or 3 inches high,
straight, leafy, very smooth. Leaves bristle-shaped ; the
radical ones short, and soon fading; the rest furnished with
long, angular, ribbed, smooth, more or less inflated, sheaths.
Stipula blunt. Panicle small, erect, dense, but little subdivided.
Flowers upright, shining, prettily variegated with
green and white. Calyx of 2 equal glumes, rough at the
back. Florets both sessile, about as long as the calyx, very
slightly pubescent at their base, cloven at their summits. Awn
from below the middle of each outer valve, scarcely twice as
long as the calyx, jointed in the middle, its lower half purple.
The general hue of this plant is a pale green, frequently
tinged with purple from exposure to much light.
It is scarcely necessary to say that this trifling grass has
little to recommend it to the farmer’s notice. Even Mr.
Curtis is silent as to its qualities.
-Z296
/8o+. Jefrerty. JZoiuZons.