

TRIANDRIA. DIGYNIA. Poa. 



( 



Reed Meadow-grass* Marshes and banks of rivers. 



141 



P. July— Aug. 



# 



P. Panicles with subdivided branches r spikets 5-flowered : dis'tans. 



florets distant, blunt: calyx, valves very unequal. 



PLATE XXV. 



From 9 to 12 inches high, or more. Straw bent at the 

 lower joint; smooth. Root-leaves short, stiffish, slender, smooth* 

 Stem-leaves sheathing, rough at the edges near the end. Sheath- 

 scale short, broad. Panicle about 3 inches long, 2 inches wide: 

 branches in distant whirls, 4 or 3 in a whirl, greatly expanding ; 

 when ripe still more so. Spikets 5 or 6* flowered. Calyx smooth, 

 1 valve twice as large as the other. Bloss. smooth, skinny at 

 the edge and the point, not woolly at the base, unequal, blunt. 



Air a aquatica distans. Huds. Loose-flowered Meadow-grass* 



Sandy places near Exmouth. About Northfleet in Kent, and in 

 Yorkshire and Lancashire. P. June. July. 



P. Panicle spreading: spikets 5-flowered, smooth: straw praten'sis 



cylindrical^ upright, Linn. Sheath-scale short and 



blunt. Curt. 



Gram. pasc.-Curt.-C. 5. 28-H.ox. viii. 5. IS-Stilling. 6- 

 Leers 6\ \-Scheuch. 3. VI -Anders. 



From 1 to 2 feet high. Panicle heavy when in seed, not 

 greatly diverging, 2 to 4 inches long, and more than half as 

 broad. Leaves much less rough than in P. trivial is, but not al- 

 ways smooth. 



Smooth stalked meadow-grass* Meadows, dry banks, and 

 even on walls. [Constitutes a considerable part of the herbage 

 on the rich meadows in the flat parts of Somersetshire.] 



P. May, June. 



Mr. Swayne observes, that in meadows which have been 

 flooded the whole Winter it flourishes so as nearly to exclude 

 every other grass. Bath Soc. vol. ii. 



Var. 



2. setacea. Leaves slender, straw smooth. 



H. ox. viii. 5. iQ-Leers 6. 3. 





Spikets 3-flowered, pubescent root-leaves like bristles. Huds. 

 Spdet florets 3 or 4, not merely woolly at the base, but like- 

 wise along the keel. This seems to be what Mr. Hudson con- 

 sidered as a narrow-leaved var. of the P. trivialis, but the smooth- 

 ness of the whole plant, and the shortness of the sheath-scale in- 

 duces me to place it with the P. pratensis. Mr. Curtis has re. 

 Marked that the sheath-scale in the P. trivialis is always long 



* It is an extremely useful grass to sow upon the banks of rivers or 

 orooks. Hgjses, cows, aiul t>!iCwp are exceedingly fond of it. 





