~~ 
26 PHLEUM PRATENSE. 
Panicle upright, compact, and cylindrical, green and white; 
length varying from two to five inches. Spikelets diminutive, 
abundant, arranged in pairs all round the rachis on brief foot- 
stalks, having one slightly-awneg floret considerably shorter 
than the calyx. Calyx consisting of two equal-sized glumes, 
having a broad membranous margin, keels furnished with short 
stout white hairs. Palea, outer one five-ribbed, egg-shaped, 
apex jagged, keel hairy. Floret consisting of two palex, which 
are membranous. Stem circular, smooth, upright, bearing four 
or five leaves. Sheaths smooth, the uppermost one longer than 
its leaf, having a membranous ligule. Joints smooth. Leaves 
rough, flat, broadish, acute. Inflorescence simple, panicled. 
Length eighteen to twenty-four inches. Root creeping, some- 
what bulbous, perennial. 
Flowers in the third week in June, and ripens seed at the 
end of July. 
In A. alpinus the glumes are a third longer than their awns, 
in P. pratense about twice the length. 
In P. arenarium glumes acute and ‘not awned, in P. pra- 
tense blunt and awned. In P. arenarium floret one-third 
of the length of the calyx, whilst in P. pratense about half 
the length of the calyx. 
P. Michelit has longer spikelets, acute glumes, and not awned. 
: pratense, var. longiaristatum, Parnell, (the Long-awned 
Timothy Grass,) found in a damp wood near Edinburgh, dif- 
fers from the normal form by the awns of the glumes being 
almost as long as the glumes, and the root being bulbous. It 
does not flower till August. 
P. pratense, var. longiciliatum, Parnell, (The Bulbous Timothy 
Grass.) Stem near base prostrate, joints bent, awns-of glumes 
short, root bulbous. Found in sandy situations. Flowering 
in the end of July. 
Fine specimens have been forwarded both by Dr. Wilson, 
of Nottingham, and Mr. Sidebotham, of Manchester. 
The illustration is from Dr. Wilson’s specimen. 
