LAGU RUS*.

Linnean Class and Order. TRIA'NDRIA †, DIGY'NIA.

Natural Order. GRAMINEE, Juss. Gen. Pl. p. 28.-Sm. Gram. of Bot. p. 86. Engl. Fl. v. i. p. 71.-Lindl. Syn. p. 293.; Introd. to Nat. Syst. of Bot. p. 292.-Loud. Hort. Brit. p. 542.-Mack. Fl. Hibern. p. 294.-GRAMINA, Linn.-Rich. by Macgilliv. p. 393. GRAMINALES; sect. FESTUCINE; Burn. Outl. of Bot. v. i. pp. 359 and 363.

GEN. CHAR. Panicle spiked. Spikelets 1-flowered (see fig. 1). Calyx (see fig. 2.) of 2 equal, slender, membranous, spreading, fringed glumes, lengthened into feathery awns. Corolla (fig. 3.) of 2 unequal palea, thicker and firmer than the glumes; the outer palea longest, egg-oblong, concave, terminating in 2 equal, upright awns, shorter than the glumes, and bearing a much longer one from the middle of its back, twisting in the lower part, tapering and direct in the upper, reflexed when dry; inner palea smaller, involute, cloven, awnless. Nectary (fig. 5.) deeply cloven, acute. Filaments (see fig. 3.) 3, hair-like, shorter than the calyx. Anthers upright, oblong, cloven at each end. Germen (see fig. 4.) ellipticoblong. Styles (see fig. 4.) very short. Stigmas cylindrical, feathery. Seed oblong, blunt, with a furrow along the front, loose, but enveloped in the unchanged corolla.

The dense, spiked panicle; the 1-flowered spikelets; the calyx of 2 equal, fringed glumes, lengthened into feathery awns; and the corolla of 2 palea, the outer of which is bifid at the apex, with a dorsal awn; will distinguish this from other genera in the same class and order.

Only One species known.

LAGU RUS OVA'TUS. Ovate Hare's-tail-grass.
SPEC. CHAR.

Engl Bot. t. 1334. Fl. Græc. v. i. p. 71. t. 90.-Host. Gram. Austr. v. ii. p. 34. t. 46.--Schreb. Gram. v. i. p. 143. t. 19. f. 3.-Linn. Sp. Pl. p. 119.Willd. Sp. Pl. v. i. pt. 1. p. 453.-Dickson's Hortus Siccus, fasc. 7. 1. fide SMITH.-Sm. Fl. Brit. v. i. p. 143. Engl. Fl. v. i. p. 167.-With. (5th ed.) v. ii. p. 220.-Gray's Nat. Arr. v. ii. p. 153.-Lindl. Syn. p. 299.-Hook. Brit. Fl. p. 30.-Alopecuros, Johnson's Gerarde, p. 87. n. 1.-Alopecuros genuina, Morison. v. iii. p. 191. sect. 8. t. 4. f. 1.-Parkinson's Theatrum Botanicum, p. 1166. n. 1.-Gramen spicatum tomentosum longissimis aristis donatum, Scheuchzero Agrostographia, p. 58. t. 2. f. 4. B. c.-Gramen alopecuroides, spica rotundiore, Bauh. Pin. p. 4.

LOCALITIES. In open sandy fields, near the sea, in the South; very rare.-. In Guernsey: Mr. GOSSELIN, in Dickon's Hort. Sicc. In the same locality, in 1833: W. C. TREVELYAN, Esq., from whom wild specimens were sent to the Sherardian Herbarium.

Annual.-Flowers in June.

Fig. 1. Two of the Spikelets.-Fig. 2. The two Glumes of the Calyx.-Fig. 3. A single Floret, showing the two Paleæ, the Stamens, and the Pistils.-Fig. 4. The Germen, Styles, and Stigmas.-Fig. 5. Nectary.-All a little magnified.

From lagos, Gr. a hare; and oura, Gr. a tail; from the spike-like panicle resembling the tail of a hare.

THORNTON.

Root fibrous, fibres woolly. Culm (stem) from 4 inches to a foot, or more, high, upright, often geniculated (knee-bent) at the base, leafy; striated and downy at the top. Leaves spear-shaped, very soft and downy, wavy at the margins, blunt, or sometimes egg-shaped, at the base. Sheaths (vagina) inflated, ribbed, very downy. Stipula (ligula) oblong, downy. Panicle upright, or more or less inclining, very dense, forming an egg-shaped spike of many flowers, woolly from the copious soft hairs of the calyx. Glumes (see fig. 2.) equal, strap-spear-shaped, sharp pointed, and clothed with very long, white hairs. Palea (see fig 3.) unequal, the outer palea striated, hairy, bifid at the apex, with a long dorsal awn; inner palea shorter, membranous, smooth.

This is a very pretty grass, and extremely rare in a wild state in Britain, having been found only in the Isle of Guernsey. In the more southern parts of Europe it is much more frequent. Sir JAMES EDWARD SMITH observed it about the ruins of the Roman amphitheatre at Frejus in France; (Tour on the Continent, v. i. p. 198). It is also a native of Italy, Sicily, and Portugal.

"This is human happiness!

Its secret and its evidence are writ

In the broad book of nature. "Tis to have
Attentive and believing faculties;

To go abroad rejoicing in the joy

Of beautiful and well-created things;

To love the voice of waters, and the sheen

Of silver fountains leaping to the sea;
To thrill with the rich melody of birds,
Living their life of music; to be glad

In the gay sunshine, reverent in the storm;

To see a beauty in the stirring leaf,

And find calm thoughts beneath the whispering tree;

To see, and hear, and breathe the evidence

Of God's deep wisdom in the natural world!

It is to linger on the magic face

Of human beauty,' and from light and shade
Alike to draw a lesson; 'tis to love
The cadences of voices that are tuned
By majesty and purity of thought;
To gaze on woman's beauty, as a star
Whose purity and distance make it fair;
And in the gush of music to be still,
And feel that it has purified the heart!
It is to love all virtue for itself,

All nature for its breathing evidence ;

And, when the eye hath seen, and when the ear
Hath drunk the beautiful harmony of the world,
It is to humble the imperfect mind,

And lean the broken spirit upon GOD!"

N. P. WILLIS.

Pul by WBarter Botanic Garden Orford, 1837.