slir<t.\ 



s.RAMINE.E. 



299 



f f Calyx two- or rarely three-flowered. 



8. C ata ii rosa. Beauv. Whorl-grass. 



Panicle spreading. Calyx of two valves, membranaceous, very 

 obtuse, much shorter than the spikelets, two or three-flowered, 

 often with a fourth imperfect floret. Calyx two-valved, cori- 

 aceous, membranous only at the extremity, ribbed, truncated, 

 awnless, erose, nearly equal. — Named from KaTappwais, a 

 gnawing, from the erose extremity of the glumes. 



Triandria. Digynia. 



1. C. aquatica, Beauv. Water Whorl-grass. Panicle with 

 whorled patent branches ; leaves broadly linear, obtuse. Br. Fl. 

 ed. 3. p. 39. — Aira aquatica, Linn. E. Bot. t. 1557. E. FL v. i. 

 p. 101. 



Muddy ditches and watery places. Fl. May, June. %.— This, as 

 Doctor Hooker remarks, is very different in habit and generic charac- 

 ter from Aira. Mertens unites it to the long spikeleted Poas, which 

 now, according to Smith, form the genus Glyceria : but it does not 

 naturally combine with them. Culm or rather caudex of the root 

 very long, branched, floating, jointed, sending from the joints fibrous 

 radicles below, and culms above, a foot or more long, stout, with short 

 broad leaves. Calyx scarcely nerved, thin and membranous, broadly 

 oval, obtuse. Corolla of a thick texture, brownish-green, white and 

 diaphanous at the blunted extremity. 



9. Aiua. Linn. Hair-grass. 



Calyx of two valves, unequal, containing two perfect flowers. 

 Corolla 2-valved, membranaceous and thin ; the outer one 

 awned (rarely awnless) near the base. Fruit free.. — Named 

 from atpw, to destroy. This name was anciently applied to Lo- 

 lium temulentum, (bearded Darnel,) on account of its injurious 

 effects : and now to the present genus, though having little 

 in common with it. Triandria. Digynia. 



* Corolla awnless. Panicle spiked. Kceleria, Persoon. 

 Airochloa, Link, Lindl. 



1. A. cristata, Linn. Crested Hair-grass. Panicle spiked, 

 smoothish ; leaves hairy. Br. Fl. ed. 3. p. 39. E. Fl. v. i. p. 101. 

 E. Bot. t. 648. — Poa, Linn. 



Dry pastures, especially near the sea, frequent. Fl. June, July. 

 %.— Six to eight inches high. Leaves linear, short, glaucous. Spike 

 shining, ovato-lanceolate. Glumes of the calyx acute, lanceolate, 

 compressed, glabrous, and downy and a little rough at the keel.^ Inner 

 valves of the corolla rough, white, delicate, reticulated, bifid, with two 

 longitudinal folds. 



