[f. prec.] A popular name for grasses of the genus Briza, esp. B. media.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, I. lvii. 80. Shakers, or quaking grasse, groweth to the height of halfe a foote.
1785. Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., xiii. (1794), 136. A loose panicle, the footstalks of which are so slender as to be moved by every wind; whence they have obtained the name of Quaking-grasses.
1848. C. A. Johns, Week at Lizard, 294. Briza minor, Small Quaking-grass, is one of the most elegant of the British grasses.
1882. Garden, 14 Jan., 28/3. Briza maxima and gracilis are two of the best of the Quaking grasses.
