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J 8 &
STI PA pennata.
Feather-grass.
TRIANDRIA Digynia.
G en. C har. Cal. of 2 valves, single-flowered. Outer
valve o f the Corolla terminated by a very long awn,
jointed at the base.
S pec. Char. Awns feathery.
S y n . Stipa pennata. Linn. Sp. PI. 115. Sm. FI. Brit.
138. Hudsi 29. With. 163. Hull. 1 7 .
Gramen sparteum pennatum. DHL in Raii Syn. 393.
T h i s is one of the few plants admitted, with a mark of
doubt, into the FI. Brit, on the authority of books alone. The
accurate Dr. Richardson and Mr. Lawson informed Dillenius
they had found the Feather-grass on lime-stone rocks, overhanging
a little valley called Long Sleadale, Westmoreland.
They could not be mistaken as to its identity; and though it
has often since been sought there in vain, it may, like Limi-
sticum cornuliense, reward the searches of some future botanist.
There being no coloured figure of it extant, added to
its great elegance, is a sufficient motive for its publication
here. In curious gardens it is cultivated for the sake of its
plumy awns, which are sometimes worn by ladies as feathers,
or used to decorate the chimney-piece in winter. In the latter
situation, the air of the room keeps them ip perpetual motion.
This grass is perennial, and flowers jn June. The leaves
are upright, long, slender, acute, and rougbish. Stems a foot
high, leafy, smooth, simple, with 3 or 4 joints. By mistake
they are said in the FI, Brit, to have none. The simple panicle
bursts from the very long and large sheath of the upper-
leaf. The permanent outer valve of the corolla is crowned
by a feathery awn of immoderate length, twisted below,
which conveys the seed to a distance : the valve, being very
sharp and barbed, works its way into the ground, and the awn
then separates from it by means of the brittle joint.