GRAMIXE.E. (GRASS FAMILY.) 561 



33. POA, L. Meadow-Grass. Speak-Grass. 



Spikelets ovate, or lance-ovate, compressed, several- (2 -10-) flowered, in an 

 open panicle. Glumes mostly shorter than the flowers ; the lower smaller. Low- 

 er palea membranaceo-herbaceous, with a delicate scarious margin, compressed- 

 keeled, pointless, 5-nerved (the intermediate nerves more obscure or obsolete), 

 the principal nerves commonly clothed at and towards the base with soft hairs 

 or long and crisped cobweb-like wool ; upper palea membranaceous, 2-toothed. 

 Stamens 2 or 3. Stigmas simply plumose. Grain oblong, free. — Culms tufted. 

 Leaves smooth, usually flat and soft. (An ancient Greek name for Grass.) 



# Root annual: branches of the short panicle single or in pairs. 



1. P. annua, L. (Low Spear-Grass.) Culms spreading or decum- 

 bent (3' -8' long), flattened; panicle often 1-sided; spikelcts crowded, veiy 

 short-pedicelled, 3 - 7-flowered ; lower palea delicately more or less hairy on the 

 nerves below. — Cultivated and waste grounds, everywhere : but doubtful if real- 

 ly indigenous here. April -Oct. (Eu.) 



* * Root perennial : culms tufted, of en stoloniferous at the base. 



■•- Branches of the simple panicle mostly solitary or in pairs, short but slender, smooth, 

 bearing single or few purplish spikelets. (Alpine.) 



2. P. laxa, Haenke. Culms upright (4'- 9' high) ; panicle nodding, often 

 racemose-contracted ; spikelets ovate, 3 - 5-flowered ; lower palea obscurely 

 nerved, villous on the midrib and marginal nerves below ; leaves narrow ; 

 ligules elongated. — Alpine mountain-tops of Maine, New Hampshire, and N. 

 New York, and high northward. (The nearly related P. alpina is found in 

 Canada, and may occur within our borders.) (Eu.) 



•t- 4- Branches of the very loose panicle long and capillary, mostly in pairs or in 

 threes, naked below (more or less scabrous) : spikelets few or widely scattered, pretty 

 large (3" -4" long, pale-green, sometimes purple-tinged), loosely 3-5 flowered: 

 culm fattish (l°-2° high), plant soft and smooth, flowering in spring. 



++ Flowers (oblong) obtuse, as also the larger glume: panicle diffuse: lower palea 

 rather conspicuously scarious at the apex, villous below the middle on the keel and 

 marginal nerves. 



3. P. brevifolia, Muhl. Culm stoloniferous from the base, 2- 3-lcaved, 

 the upper leaves very short (^'-2' long), lanceolate, all abruptly cuspidate-tipped; 

 branches of the short panicle mostly in pairs ; lower palea rather obscurely nerved, 

 cobwebby at the base. (P. pungens, Nutt., cxcl. syn. Ell. P. cuspidata, Barton. 

 The older and also more appropriate name is here restored.) — Rocky or hilly 

 woodlands, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and sparingly westward. April, May. — 

 Culm scarcely surpassing the long root-leaves. 



4. P. flexuosa, Muhl. Culm slender (not stoloniferous'?); its leaves 

 all linear (2' -5' long) and gradually taper-pointed ; panicle very effuse (its branches 

 2' -4' long to the spikelets or first ramification) ; lower palea prominently nerved, 

 no web at the base. (P. autumnalis, Muhl. in Ell. P. campyle, Schult.) — Dry 

 woods, Virginia, Kentucky, and southward. Feb. -May. — Wrongly con- 

 founded with the last, though near it. P. autumnalis is an inappropriate name, 

 and there is now no obstacle to restoring the earlier published and unobjection- 

 able (but not descriptive) name of P. flexuosa. 



