A I R A caryophyllea.
Silver Hair-grafs.
TRIA ND RIA Digyma.
G en. C har. Cal. o f i valves, 2-flowered. Cor. o f
2 valves. Florets without any imperfedt one
between them.
Spec. Char. Leaves flender and tapering. Branches
o f the panicle ternate, fpreading. Florets feffile.
Awn from the back o f the corolla, twitted.
Sy n . Aira carvophyllea. Linn. Sp. P i. 97* FI.
Brit. 88. ' Hudf. 36. With. 138. Hull. 20.
Relb. 32. Sibtb. 39. A llo t. 16. Curt.Lona.fafc.fi.
t. 6. Dickf. H. Sicc.fafc. 4. 5.
Gramen paniculatum, locuftis parvis purpuro-argen-
teis, anriaum, Raii Syn. 407.
T h i s pretty grafs, with its elegant filvery panicles, frequently
ornaments the moft barren fandy or gravelly fields and
hills, flowering about June or early in July, after which it is
foon dried up, the root being annual and very fmall, little
calculated to refill drought.
From one root arife feveral fpreading flender ftems about a
fpan high, fmooth and leafy. The radical leaves foon wither;
thofe on the Hem are narrow and tapering, with long theaths,
and lanceolate longilh ftipulse. Panicle very flender and hairlike,
divided and fubdivided in a ternate manner, fmooth and
divaricated. Flowers fmall, ovate, green or purplifli, with a
fliining filvery hue fcarcely to be exprefled in a drawing*
Calyx-glumes rough at the keel, membranous at the point.
Florets both feffile, downy at their bafe. Outer valve of the
corolla bearing a twilled awn on its back, about twice its own
length.
This grafs may contribute towards the early fummer food of
ffieep, for which reafon probably Mr, Stillingfleet figured it in
his work; but it is juftly obferved in the Flora Londinenfis,
that fo infignificant an annual can hardly be worth cultivating
for the improvement of meadows or pallures.