56o 



GRAMfNE^ 



notched, with awns 2 or 4 times as long as the glumes, from 



below their tips ; flowering glume shorter and more shortly awned. 



(Name from the Greek polus, many, pogon, beard, from the long 



awns.) 



I. P. monspeliensis (Annual Beard-grass). — A very beautiful 



species, procumbent at base, or rarely erect, i — 1| foot high; 



stems stout, smooth ; leaves large, broad, rough ; panicle 1 — 6 in. 



long, dense, lobed, of a yellowish 

 shining green, silky; glumes blunt, 

 less than half as long as the awns ; 

 -flowering glume awnless. — Damp 

 pastures in the south-eastern coun- 

 ties ; rare. — Fl. June — ■ August. 

 Annual. 



2. P. littordlis (Perennial Beard- 

 grass). — Nearly allied, variable in 

 size, sometimes several feet in 

 height ; panicle smaller, more 

 branched, purplish ; glumes longer, 

 tapering into an awn scarcely longer 

 than the glume itself. — Salt marshes 

 on the south-east coast; rare. — Fl. 

 July, August. Perennial. 



15. Calamagrostis (Small-reed). 

 — Tall grasses with spreading, some- 

 what I -sided panicles of i-Howered 

 spikelets ; flowering glume awned, 

 with a tuft of long, silky hairs on the 

 rachilla at its base. Distinguished 

 from the true reed {Phragmites) by 

 the i-flowered spikelets. (Name 

 from the Greek kalamos, reed, 

 agrosiis, grass.) 



I. C. epigejos (Wood Small- 

 reed). — Stem 3 — 5 feet high, stout, 

 erect; leaves longj acuminate, rough, glaucous beneath; panicle 

 branched, but not spreading except when in full flower, 4 — 12 in. 

 long, with numerous crowded, purplish spikelets ; flowering glume 

 with very short and slender awn from about the middle. — In 

 moist open places in woods ; not generally common. One of the 

 handsomest grasses. — Fl. June — August. Perennial. 



2. C. canescens (Purple Small-reed).— A tall grass, 2—4 feet 

 high, resembling the preceding, but slender ; leaves narrower and 



calamagr6stis epig6jos 

 {IVood Small-reed). 



