H O L C U S lanatus.
Meadow Soft-grafs.
TR1ANDRIA Digynia.
G e n . C h a r . Cal. o f i valves, 2-flowered ; one o f
the flowers with an imperfect germen. Cor. o f
2 valves ; the outer one awned.
S p e c . C h a r . Calyx-glumes woolly. Hermaphrodite
floret beardlefs: male with an arched recurved
awn.
Syn. Holcus lanatus. Linn. Sp. PL 1485. Sm. FI.
Brit. 89. Hudf. 440. With. 134. Hull, 225.
Relh. 30. iSibth. 40. Abbot. 218. Curt. Lond.
fafc. 4. t. 1 1 . Dick/. H. Sirc.fafc. 9. 16.
Gramen miliaceum pratenfe molle. Ran Syn. 404.
F r e q u e n t and abundant in meadows and paftures, flowering
in June and July.
The roots are perennial, tufted, not creeping. Stems feve-
ral, upright, Ample, leafy, round, jointed, clothed, more
efpecially in the lower part, with denfe {hort foft hairs pointing
downward. Leaves flat, pale green, {harp pointed, covered
with foft hairs on both tides, but efpecially beneath.
Stipula thort and blunt. Panicle ereft, compound, often tinged
with red, particularly when it firft emerges from the long
{heath of the uppermoft leaf. Its branches are fubdivided,
capillary and downy. Calyx-hulks equal in length, angular,
all over clothed with foft woolly down, tinged with purple,
often granulated in their upper part. Florets 2 on a common
little ftalk ; the lowermoft beardlefs, furnifhed with both (lain
ina and pi ft ilium; the upper generally with {lamina only,
but its outer hulk terminates in an awn fcarcely projecting beyond
the calyx, and when ripe curved back in an arched
manner, well compared by Scheuchzer to a fllh-hook. This
circumftance, though admirably charafteriltic of the fpecies,
and particularly mentioned by the excellent obferver juft
named, has been, overlooked by Mr. Curtis and others when
labouring to diftinguilh this grafs from the following.