ALOPECURUS. 137 



a ALOPECURUS— Linnseus. Foxtail Grass. 



GENERIC CHARACTER. 



Spikelets 1-flowered ; glumes boat-sliaped, strongly 

 compressed and keeled, nearly equal, united at the 

 base, equalling or exceeding the lower palet, which 

 is awned at the back, below the middle ; upper palet 

 wanting ; stamens 3 ; s*tyles mostly united ; stigmas 

 long and feathered ; clusters contracted into a cylin- 

 drical and soft, dense spike ; root perennial. 



{Name from two Greek words, signifying fox and 

 tail, the popular appellation, from the shape of 

 spike.) 



1. Alopecurus Pratei^sis, LinncBus (Meadow 

 Foxtail). See page 35. 



2. Alopecurus Geniculatus, LinncBus (Floating 

 Foxtail. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 



Culm ascending, bent at the lower joints ; palet ra- 

 ther shorter than the obtuse glumes, the awn from 

 near its base, and projecting half its length beyond 

 It ; anthers linear ; the upper leaf as long as its 

 sheath. Moist meadows eastward ; flowers in May 

 and June. 



This grass grows in situations so liable to inunda- 

 tion, that the other good grasses, if sown there, are 

 soon expelled. In respect to the degree of moisture 

 which it will support, it stands between the rough- 

 stalked poa and the flote fescue, and thus forms a 

 connecting link between the fens and moister meadow 

 lands in England, for it is found in some of the rich- 



