112 POA. [class fll. ORDER li. 



* Spikelets linear or linear-ovate. 



1. P. aqua'iica, Linn. (Fig. 139.) reed Meadow-grass. Panicle erect, 

 large, much branched, and spreading, florets numerous, ohtuse ; 

 outer valve seven-ribbed; leaves broad lanceolate. 



English Botany, t. 1315. — Hooker, British Flora, vol. i. p. 43.— 

 Glyce'ria aqua'iica, English Flora, vol. i. p. 116. — Sinclair, Hort. Gram. 

 Woburn. p. 354. — Hydro' chloa aqna'tica, Ilartman, Lindley, Synopsis, 

 p. 316. 



Root with jointed creeping iindcrqround stems and numerous whorled 

 fibres. Stems erect, from three to six feet high, striated, smooth, and 

 leafy in the lower part, naked and roughish above, slightly compressed. 

 Leaves long, linear-lanceolate, broad, flat, single-ribbed, rough on the 

 edges and under side. Sheaths smooth, close, finely striated. Ligula 

 obtuse, torn. Inflorescence a large nearly erect panicle, from six to 

 twelve inches long, its branches arising in alternate half whorls, long, 

 rough, repeatedly branched, spreading. Spikelets numerous, linear. 

 Glumes unequal, meml)ranous, smooth; outer valve smallest, single- 

 ribbed ; inner with a strong dorsal and two smaller lateral ribs; florets 

 from five to ten or more, obtuse; outer valve with about nine strong ribs, 

 smooth, or minutely downy ; inner narrower, with two lateral ribs, 

 from which the membranous margins are inflexed, bifid at the extre- 



labours and investigations of ages,) and the divisions which are distinctly stated 

 by the sacred historian Moses, in his account of the creation, given in the Book 

 of Genesis, where we read that on tlie third day, or epoch, vegetables were 

 created. In our translation, it is thus stated : — " God said, Let the earth bring 

 forth grass (Deshe), the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding/razY after 

 his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth : and it was so. And the earth 

 brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding 

 fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind." The primary divisions of what 

 is called the Natural System of Botany, are three, (which appear to have been 

 made without the least suspicion that they were the same as those given by 

 Moses,) and were called \>y Linnoeus, Cryptogama, Fruges, and Plantse, which 

 are synonymous with Cellulures, or Acotyledons, — Endogense, or Monocotyle- 

 dons, — and Exogence, or Dicotyledons; and by some botanists they have been 

 called Spore-hearinr/, or seedless plants, Grain-bcnring, and Seed-bearing plants. 

 These three divisions agree precisely with those of the Mosaic account above 

 quoted. The word desiie in the original Hebrew, which is translated in th« 

 ie\i grass, is satisfactorily jjointed out, both by an able writer in the 2oth Num- 

 ber of " Jameson's Journal," and by the late Professor Burnet, to signify spring- 

 ing or shooting plants, or tender herbs. And we may also state, in corroboration 

 of these opinions, that of Rosenmiillcr, in bis Scholia on Genesis, ch. 1, t. H : 

 "Itaque in hoc commate in tres veluti classes, quidquid emittit terra, dividitur: 

 1. est tenera licrba, sine semine, saltem conspicuo : 2. quae somen profert 

 majorque est: 3. arbores, sub quil)us arbusta continentur." So that, in (hit 

 sentence, whatever the earth sends forth, is divided, as it were, into three clastet : 

 1. There is the tender herb without seed, at least any that it observ-ilile (Acoty- 

 ledons); 2. That which produces seed, and is larger (Monocotyledon*) • 3. 

 Trees, under which shrubs are included (Dicotyledons). 



