lOG TRIANDRIA. DIGYNIA. unisla. 



Root creeping extensively and throwing up suckers. Culm abou' 

 a foot and a half high, erect, terete, glabrous, branched at the 

 base. Leaves numerous, rigid, acute, alternate, 3 — 6 inches 

 long, slightly glaucous. Sheaths closely embracing the culm, 

 longer than the joints, sides and margins smooth ; the upper 

 ones hairy at the throat. Stifiule scarcely apparent. Panicle 

 contracted into a dense spike. Sfiikelets fasciculate, on short 

 branches, sessile, ovate-oblong, of a yelk)wish-green colour, 

 somewhat tumkl ; florets generally all fertile. Calyx unequal, 

 acute, carinate. Valves of the corolla nearly t qual ; the infe- 

 rior one acute and carinate ; the other rather obtuse, the edges- 

 folded inwards and covering the germen. Anthers purple, 

 much exserted. Styles and stigmas very long. A''ectaries ob- 

 ovate, minute. Seed brown, acuminate. 



Had. In salt-marshes and on the sea-shore ; common. August 

 — September. Tlie number of florets in each spikelet varies 

 according to the situation of the plant. 



26. BRIZA. L. 



Spikdets cordate-ovate, many-flowered. Calyx pa- 

 leaceous, bliorter than the distichous florets. Corolla 

 ventricose ; inferior valve cordate, the superior nearly 

 orbicular, very short. Gen. pi. 115. Niitt. Gen, 

 L p. 68. Juss. p. 32. Roem. £s? Scliult. Gen, 

 289. Trin. Jgrost. 80. F. de Be ait v. t. XIV. 

 f. 3. Flowers in capillary panicles. Quaking-grass. 



B. media L. : panicle erect ; spikelets at length cordate, 



about 7-flowered ; calyx smalUr than the florets. Willd. 



Spec. 1. p. 404. Smith FL Brit. I. p. 109. Eng. Bof. 



t. 340. Muhl. Gram. p. 152. Roem. ^' Schult. IL 



p. 520. 



Root perennial. Culm about a foot and a half high, raked above. 

 Leaves fiat, smooth. Stipule short, obtuse. Panicle few- 

 flowered ; branches capillary, spreading, purple. Sfiikelets 

 tumid, green and purple, at first ovate, but at length becom- 

 ing broader and cordate. Corolla nerveless, smooth. 

 FIab. In the vicinity of Boston, naturalized. Big (low. In 

 Pennsylvania. Muhlenberg. May. 



27. POA. L. 



Spikelets oblong or linear, compressed, many-flowered 

 (3 — 20). Calyx shorter than the florets. Corolla herbace- 

 ous, awnless, often arachnoid at the base ; inferior valve 

 scarious on the margin. Gen. pi. l\A. Nutt. Gett. 

 I. p. 65. Juss, p. 32. lioetn. ^ Schult. Gen. 



