CH. vii] Botanical Description of Species 



107 



hairs, giving the plant a velvety touch, and the foliage is of a 

 pale greyish-green colour. Sheath split, with a slight keel; the 

 veins of the basal sheaths of a pink colour. Blades rolled in the 

 shoot, thin, dry, and almost ribless. Ligule distinct, but blunt 

 and hairy. Auricles absent. 



Flowers in June or July ; culms from 1 to 2 feet high. Panicle 

 at first green and close; at flowering time open, spreading, and 

 usually having a pinkish tinge. Spikelets two-flowered, the lower 

 flower bi-sexual, the upper one staminate. Glumes hairy, of nearly 

 equal length ; the upper and broader one tipped with an awn-like 

 point. Both glumes are sharply keeled; the upper one has a 

 lateral nerve on either side of its keel, situated nearer to the 

 margin than to the keel. 



Fig. Ill "Seed" of Glyceria 

 aquatica. x 10. Front and 

 side views. 



Fig. 112. "Seed" of Glyceria 

 fluitans. x 10. Front and 

 side views. 



"Seed" The outer palea of the lower flower is oval in form, 

 smooth and awnless. At its base are frequently a few straight 

 silky hairs, and its rachilla is long, slender and cylindrical. The 

 outer palea of the upper flower bears a sub-terminal awn which is 

 about half as long as the palea and becomes curved and hook-like 

 when mature. 



The "seed" may consist of the whole spikelets, about 4mm. 

 long by 2 mm. broad ; or the product of the two flowers may 

 separate from the empty glumes (in which case the "seed" con- 

 sists of the paleee of the lower flower enclosing a grain, and carrying 

 the upper barren flower on their rachilla); or the ripened "seed" 



