J b o
H O L C U S mollis. » Creeping Soft-graft.
TR1ANDRIA Digynia.
G en. C har. Cal. of i valves, a-flowered ; one o f
the flowers with an imperfect germen. Cor. o f
i valves ; the outer one awned.
S pec. C har. Calyx-glumes nearly equal, partly naked.
Hermaphrodite floret lowed and beardlefs : male
with a fharply bent awn. Root creeping.
S yn. Holcus mollis. Linn. Sp. PL 1485. Sm. FI,
Brit. 89. Hudf. 440. With. 135. Hull. 225.
Relh. 30. Sihth. 40. Abbot. 217. Curt. Land,
fafe. 5. t. 8. Dickf. H. Sicc.faje. 9. 17.
Gramen miliaceum ariflatum molle. Rail Syn. 404.
T h i s Holcus is much lefs frequent than the preceding, and
grows in a different kind of fituation, preferring fhady copfes
and hedges. It flowers in July and is perennial, the widely
creeping root indeed being very difficult of extirpation, and
affording one of the moft evident marks to diftinguifh it from
H. lanatus. To which may be added that the mollis is commonly
a more flender and lefs downy plant; its panicle fmall-
er, but its flowers larger, diftinguiffied by their more prominent
awns, which, when fully ripe and dry, either continue
projecting and nearly ftraight, or are bent back at a right angle,
by no means arched like thofe of the other. For this
character we muft however wait in both inftances till the
hulks are quite mature and dry.
Thefe graffes are eonfidered as of very little value to the
farmer, efpecially that now before us; but we do not, with
Mr. Curtis, efteem this formidable as a Couch-grafs. It is
not common, nor will it thrive in open land. Few botanilts
really know thefe fpecies from each other, and we have fcarcely
found any one who can remember their Latin names, which
muff be confeffed to be altogether inexpreffive, and tending
to puzzle rather than to affift the memory,