182 HORTUS GKAMINEUS WOBURNENSlS. 



POA ncmoralis, var. aiigitstifolia. Wood Meadow-grass. Germ. 

 Hain Rispengras. 



Specific character: panicle capillary, flowering a little on one 

 side, diffuse; spikelets lanceolate, mostly 3-flowered; florets 

 hairy at the base, without a web. See Smith Engl. Fl. i. 

 p. 129. Var. angustifoUa, leaves long, slender, husks from 

 three to five-flowered. 



Obs. • — The sheath-scale is very short, an^ truncated ; straw 

 rather compressed than otherwise, vagina smooth, root stolo- 

 niferous. Hardly any grass varies more than the Poa nemo- 

 ralis var. in the number of florets contained in the calyx. 

 When the Poa iiemoralis var. angustifoUa is raised from seed, 

 in open situations, the first year, the calyx contains only from 

 3 to 5 florets ; afterwards, the number increases to 9 florets 

 in each calyx : when raised from seed in shady situations, it 

 has frequently only 2 florets in each calyx, and sometimes 

 only 1, the first year : the number does not increase afterwards 

 to more than 3 florets in each calyx. In its natural place of 

 grovf th, Poa iiemoralis, in woods under the shade of trees, con- 

 tains only three florets, and, when long cultivated in exposed 

 situations, the calyx is 4 and 5-flowered. The next following 

 grass, though a distinct species, resembles this in several of its 

 ao-ricultural merits. £. Bot. 1265. Host. t. 71. Flo. Dan. 

 t. 749. Flo. Ger. 301. The Poa conciwia, Poa debilis, and 

 Poa vaiiegata of Schleicher, are all nearly allied to Poa iie- 

 moralis angustifoUa. Root fibrous and stoloniferous*. 



Experiments. — At the time of flowering, the produce from a 

 brown loam is — 



* The Pua coiuiniia, Poa dtbills, and Foa vuriegatu of Schleicher are all nearly 

 allied to the Poa nemoralis angustifoUa. The Poa variegata of Schleicher is de- 

 scribed as having a creeping root ; lloemer and Schultes follow Schrader in describ- 

 ing it under the name of Poa supina ; the former quote Host. Gram. Austr. iv. t. 27 : 

 but the plant under cultivation has i\ fibrous root; numerous shoots are formed at 

 the bottom of the culms during the season of growth, and at the joints of the culms 

 shoots or branches are emitted, particularly in moist seasons ; all this is precisely 

 the habit of tlie Poa nemoralis and its varieties. Tiie plant may be said to have 

 an upright stoloniferous stem, and a fibrous stoloniferous root, to distinguish it from 

 tiie possession of the stoloniferous stem and the creeping root, properly so called. 

 The plants of Poa variegata here spoken of, and cultivated in the Woburn Abbey 

 Experimental Grass Garden, were comnmnicuted to the Duke of Bedford by my 

 fiiead ^Ir. Anderson, of ihe Botanic Garden*, Chelsea. 



