/ r c
B R I Z A media.
Common Quaking-Grafs, or Cow-Quakes.
T R.IÂ ND R IA Digynia.
G en. C har. Cal. o f 2 valves, with many flowers ;
the little fpike two-ranked, its valves heart-thaped,
obtufe, the innermoft fmaller.
Spec. C har. Little fpikes ovate. Calyx fhorter
than the florets, which are about 7 in number.
Syn . Briza media. Linn. Sp. PI. 103. Hudf. FI.
An. 38. With. Bot. Arr. 92. Relh. Cant. 38.
Sibth. Ox. 43. Mart. Fl. Ruß. t. 39. Dickf.H.
Sicc.fajc. 5. 2.
Gramen tremulum. Rati Syn. 412,
V E R Y common in paftures, where, as Profeflor Martyn
obferves, it is made into hay with other grades, but never cultivated
alone for any particular purpofe. The roots are perennial,
and the flowers appear in May.
Root fibrous. Straw upright, from 6 to 18 inches, moft
commonly about a foot, in height, round, very fmooth, with
one or two joints near the bottom. Leaves moftly at the root,
with one from each joint of the ftem as ufual in grafles, the
{heaths of which laft are very long, the ftipules very {hort,
blunt, and entire. Branches of the panicle purplilh, fpread-
ing, the lowermoft in pairs, the others alternate, all fo extremely
{lender, and more or lefs zigzag, that the fpikes,
which hang drooping from their extremities, tremble at the
leaft breath of air or other caufe of agitation; from which
circumftance, as well as their elegant form and fliining brown
colour, they excite the admiration of the moft incurious. The
calyx is generally of a darker colour than the floral valves, but
like them in {hape; the florets are about 7, in two ranks, fo
that the fpike is much comprefled, and of a broad ovate figure.
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