294 MONOCOTYLEDONKS. 



branches borne in half whorls, and the leaf-sheath scarcely half 

 open. Brachypoilinm has very short-stalked spikelets in a raceme. 

 Poa (Meadow-grass), Briza (Quaking-grass) and Glyceria have 

 awnless spikelets ; these in Poa are ovoid, compressed, and with 

 sharply-keeled glumes; in Briza they are broad, cordate and 

 drooping, with boat-shaped glumes ; in Glyceria round, long, many- 

 flowered, linear or lanceolate : some species of Glyceria have closed 

 leaf-sheaths.' Dactylis (Cock's-foot) differs from all others in the 

 somewhat crowded and unilateral (subsecund) spikelets, which are 

 compressed and oblique (i.e. one side more convex than the other). 

 Phragmites (P. communis, Reed); the lowermost flowers of the 

 spikelet are <$ ; its axis is covered with long, silky hairs ; pales 

 without awns, but acuminate. Perennial marsh-plants. Melica ; 

 panicle small, sparsely-branched with round, awnless, few-flowered, 

 usually drooping spikelets. The upper pales, with arrested flowers, 

 are generally united into a club-like mass. Mulinia, Eragrostis, 

 Koeleria, Catabrosa. Cynosurus (Dog's-tail) has a small, spicate 

 panicle with unilateral spikelets, some of which are fertile, some 

 barren, each supported by a pectinate scale. Arundo. Sesleria. 

 Gi/nerium. Triodia. 



6. AVENE.E. Panicles with 2-many-flowered spikelets ; at least 

 one of the glumes is quite as long as the entire spikelet. 

 Arena (Oat). The pale is boat-shaped, often bifid, and at about 

 the middle of the back has a twisted, bent awn. Air a (Hair-grass) 

 has a long-branched panicle with small, 2-flowered spikelets ; the 

 pale has a dentate apex and bears an awn on the posterior side 

 close to the base. Weingilrineria. Holcus (Yorkshire-fog) ; a soft, 

 hairy Grass with an open panicle, keeled glumes ; 2 flowers in the 

 spikelet, of which the lower one is $ , the upper <$ ; the pale 

 which supports the ty -flower has no awn, but that which supports 

 the (J -flower, on the contrary, is awned. 



7. AoROSTlDEyE. Panicles or spike-like panicles with 1 -flowered 

 spikelets. Generally 2 glumes and only 1 pale. The following 

 have PANICLES : M ilium with square panicle-branches and round 

 spikelets; Agrostis (Fiorin), with compressed, glabrous spikelets, 

 whose glumes are longer than the pales. Calamagrostis differs in 

 having a chaplet of long hairs at the base of the pale. Sti^a 

 (Feather-grass) has a long, twisted awn. The following have SPIKE- 

 LIKR PANICLES : Plileum (Cat's-tail, Timothy-grass) has sharply 

 pointed, entirely free glumes, which are much longer than the 

 awnless pales. Alopecnrus (Fox-tail) ; glumes united below ; pale 



