GRASS TRIBE 79 
crowded. This grass is extremely abundant in the lofty mountains of 
England and Wales, and, like the greater number of grasses growing on 
elevated positions, is viviparous, forming buds between the stem and leaves. 
Its stem is from six to twelve inches high. Its panicle flowers in July and 
August, is somewhat drooping, the spikelets large and of a fine red colour, 
and the leaves are short, blunt, and tipped with a minute spine. 
14. Wavy Meadow-grass (PL. ldza).—Panicle loose, slightly nodding, 
closing up when in fruit; spikelets egg-shaped, 3 or 4 flowered; flowers 
either connected by a web or free; outer flowering glumes silky at the keel. 
This is a mountain-grass, and grows on Ben Nevis and Loch-na-gar at alti- 
tudes from 2,000 to 3,600 feet. It is slender, of a rather pale green, with a 
stem from six to twelve inches high, flowering in July and August, and 
bearing broad greenish-purple spikelets. It is often viviparous. ‘There is a 
sub-species, known as P. stricta, distinguished by having the leaves flat to the 
tip (in P. laxa the tips are concave), and the panicle spreading when in fruit. 
15. Wood Meadow-grass (P. nemordlis).—Panicle loose, slender, 
slightly leaning to one side ; spikelets egg-shaped, 2—5-flowered ; flowering 
glumes silky at the keel. Perennial. Of this plant there are many varieties. 
Their characteristic differences consist in the relative size of the spikelets 
and the habit of the panicle. Some of the varieties are so marked and con- 
stant that many botanists have considered their characteristics as permanent, 
and describe them as distinct species. Such are the P. balfourii of Parnell, 
which has an erect panicle, with larger spikelets of a most beautiful blue 
colour, the foliage more or less glaucous ; the P. parnelli of Babington, a 
mountain-grass, which grows in upper Teesdale, and which is an elegant, very 
slender, pale green plant, with smaller spikelets. The Wood Meadow-grass 
is the only species of the genus which does not grow wild on open pasture- 
lands. It is very common in our woods and thickets, and is a delicate, upright 
grass, with many leaves in early spring, flowering in July and August, and 
with a stem one or two feet high’ It has not been much grown on open 
pasture lands, but it yields a fair amount of tender and delicate herbage, 
which cattle seem to relish in the autumn. It is a late-growing grass, and 
affords more herbage at that season than in the earlier part of the year. 
16. Annual Meadow-grass (P. dnnua).—Panicle somewhat triangular, 
with spreading branches ; spikelets egg-shaped, of five or six flowers, destitute 
of a web. This little bright-green grass, and the little flower called the 
shepherd’s purse, are perhaps the two most common plants in the world. 
Not only is this grass found in every meadow of the temperate zone, but 
occasionally in most climates, often on mountains at a great elevation. And 
not alone in meadows do we see its cheerful verdure, but on almost every 
waste spot where a wild weed may spring ;—on the bank by the roadside, 
among the mosses and stonecrops of the wall, on the garden path, among 
the stones of the beach just beyond the reach of the tide, with the reeds by 
the river, on the churchyard grave, and between the crevices of the town 
pavement where the foot of the passenger daily treads. Be the season in- 
clement as it may, nor winds, nor sleet, nor chilling rains will exterminate it, 
though the frost may nip its blades. It is in flower all the spring and summer, 
and occasionally even in winter, and it ripens its seeds and sheds them in the 
