54 THE GRASSES. 



calyx to each flower ; the flower is compressed so as to 

 appear almost keeled, and destitute of awns. II, with all 

 these appearances, except a roundness and rigidity in 

 the valves, they should gradually terminate in awns or 

 bristles, your plant will be a Festuca (Fescue grass), 

 in place of a Poa, a genus of Grasses common in high 

 European pastures, and not unfrequently met with in 

 dry American meadows, and sandy grounds. 



But if your plant, with the same appearance gener- 

 ally, should have the corolla glume blunt and awned 

 a very little below the point, it will then be a Bromus 

 instead of a Festuca. 



The Oat (Avena) presents a thin membranaceous 

 calyx glume including 2 or 3 flowers, which it ex- 

 ceeds in length ; the glume of the corolla is almost of 

 a cartilaginous or horny consistence, two-valved, the 

 dorsal or larger valve producing below its cleft point a 

 conspicuous twisted awn, and, unlike the thin glume 

 of the Wheat, it pertinaciously incloses the grain, in 

 such a manner, as only to be separable by parching in 

 a kiln, which renders it brittle, and assists its separation 

 from the meal which this grain affords, and of which 

 bread is commonly made in the northern parts of Eu- 

 rope. The other species of Avena are only known as 

 Grasses, but not as grain ; they are, also, generally 

 perennial, and produce a tall crop of herbage, partic- 

 ularly the Avena elatior, which has been cultivated in 

 some of the middle states for hay. The most impor- 

 tant grass, however, for cultivation in the middle 

 .states, is certainly the Orchard-grass (Dactylis glom- 

 erata), a stout and tall grass, bearing a panicle (or irre- 

 gularly branched flowering culm), terminating in ma- 

 ny rough clusters of small, flat, and pointed glumes, all 

 in each lobe or cluster inclining one way, and nearly 

 all of the same form and consistence. The seed is 

 small, and falls out of the glume when ripe, though 



