TRIANDRIA— DIGYNIA. Poa. 125 



leafy, with several knots ; the naked part cylindrical, roiighish 

 to the touch, as are the edges and backs ot the flat, slightly 

 spreading, lax, linear, deep-green leaves. In their long corn- 

 pressed sheaths also a slight roughness is sometimes perceptible. 

 Stipula acute, oblong, or lanceolate, 1 J or 2 lines long, as no- 

 ticed by Scheuchzer, Hudson and Curtis, by which this species 

 is invariably distinguished from the following. Scheuchzer's 

 synonyms of each, misapplied by Linn.Teus and all his followers, 

 see Fl. Br., are at length settled by the accurate Schrader. 

 Haller, I have authority to say, did not well discriminate these 

 two grasses ; and Linnaeus has recorded under P. pratensis, his 

 own ignorance of their distinctions, and those of 2 others, which 

 Willdenow has strangely perverted, so as to include the widely 

 different P. annua, and exclude aJpina, which indeed is not less 

 distinct, P«nic/e large, spreading, with half-w^horled, horizontal, 

 wavy, angular, rough, compound, but very unequal, branches. 

 Spikelets ovate, of three, sometimes only two, Jlorets, whose 

 glumes are rough at the keel. Outer valve of the corolla lan- 

 ceolate, acute, concave, moderately compressed, rather longer 

 than the cahji, keeled ; smooth, with 2 lateral ribs, at each 

 side ; membranous at the point ; inner lanceolate, acute, scarcely 

 cloven, or if so, the minute segm.ents are convolute and com- 

 bined, its edges inflexed, smooth. The bases of thejiorels are 

 attached to the receptacle and to each other by a few long, very 

 slender, convoluted filaments, which may be pulled out to a 

 considerable extent. Nectary ovate, deeply cloven, acute. An- 

 thers deeply divided at each end, with spreading lobes. Germ. 

 ovate. Shjles very short. Stigmas large, spreading, feathery, 

 repeatedly subdivided, as in the genus Glyceria. Seed lanceolate, 

 triangular. 



Mr. Curtis, deeply versed in the practical economy of grasses, de- 

 clares this to be one of the most valuable for pasturage and hay, 

 yielding abundantly, though not particularly early ; and of the 

 most excellent quality. 



The variety /3, of which I have an original specimen, is only a 

 starved plant, with short and slender Leaves. 



6. P. pratensis. Smooth-stalked Meadow-grass. 



Panicle spreading. Spikelets four-flowered. Florets lan- 

 ceolate, five-ribbed, connected by a web. Stipula short 

 and obtuse. Stem and leaves smooth. Root creeping. 



P. pratensis. Linn. Sp. PL 99. Willd. v. I. 388. Fl.Br.\04. Engl. 



Bat. I'. 15. 1. 1073. Curt. Lond.fasc. 2.t.'o. Knajyp ^.5.5. Dicks. 



H.Sicc.fasc.\4.3. Sincl. \7. Hook. Scot. 3 j. Schrad. Germ. 



V. 1 . 298. Host Gram. v. 2. 44. t.6\. 

 P. glabra. Ehrh. Calam. 62. 

 Gramen pratense paniculatum medium. Bauh. Theafr. 30. f. 



Scheuchz. Agr.\80. Rati Syn. 409. 



