354 GRASS FAMILY. 



Phalaris arundinacea, REED CANARY-GRASS, the striped variety is 

 the familiar RIBBON-GRASS of country gardens ; wild in bogs and low grounds ; 

 2 - 4 high, with flat leaves nearly ' wide, flowering in early summer, in a 

 pretty dense contracted panicle, but open when the blossoms expand ; the ovate 

 whitish glumes longer and much thinner than the blunt coriaceous palets ; a 

 hairy rudiment or appendage at the base of each of the latter. Jj. 



P. Canari6nsis, CANARY-GRASS. Cult, from En. for Canary-seed, and 

 running wild in some waste places: l-2 high, with the panicle contracted 

 into a sort of oblong spike, the glumes with wing-like keels, and a little scale or 

 rudimentary sterile flower at the base of each palet. 



* * * Flowers several in each spikelet, all or nearly all perfect. 

 *- Reeds or Canes of the borders of rivers and ponds. ^ 



Phragmites commtmis, COMMON REED, mostly N.: 5 -12 high, 

 with leaves l'-2' wide, the stems dying down to the base; panicle in late sum- 

 mer or autumn, loose ; spikelets 3 - 7-flowered, beset with white silky long hairs. 



Arundinaria macrosp^rma, LARGE CANE, forming the cane-brakes 

 8. : with woody stems 10 -20 high and leaves l'-2' wide, branching the sec- 

 ond year, at length flowering from the branches, in Feb. or March ; the panicle 

 of a few small racemes of large many-flowered naked spikelets, the palets downy. 



A. t6cta, SMALLER REED, S., is only 4 - 10 high, and more branching. 

 H- *- Meadow- Grasses, Sfc.; with awn if any terminating the glume or palet. 



Dactylis glomerata, ORCHARD-GRASS. Nat. from Europe in meadows 

 and yards : a tall and coarse but valuable grass for hay, &c., flourishes in shady 

 places, 3 high ; with broadly linear, rather rough, pale, and keeled leaves, and 

 a dense panicle of one-sided clusters, on which the spikelets are much crowded, 

 each 3 - 4-flowered, both the glumes and the laterally compressed-keeled lower 

 palet tapering into a short awn, rough-ciliate on the keel : fl. early summer. ^[ 



P6a, MEADOW-GRASS ; several common species ; known by the open panicle 

 of 3-10-flowered spikelets, the glumes and palets blunt (no awn nor pointed 

 tip), the latter laterally compressed and deep boat-shaped, with scarious or white 

 membranaceous edges, and usually some delicate cobwebby hairs towards the 

 base. Fl. summer. %, all but the first. 



Poa annua, Low SPEAR-GRASS. Very low weedy grass in cult, ground, 

 waste places, paths, &c. : fl. in spring or again in summer. 



P. compressa, WIRE GRASS. In gravelly waste soil: pale, with low 

 very flat stems, rising obliquely from a creeping base ; panicle small. 



P. serdtina, FOWL-MEADOW-GRASS or FALSE RED-TOP: an important 

 native grass in wet meadows N. ; flowers in late summer in a loose panicle, the 

 2 -4-flowered spikelets green with dull purple; lower palet narrow, acutish. 



P. trivialis, ROUGHISH MEADOW-GRASS. A common introduced meadow 

 and pasture grass, N. : flowering before midsummer, with open panicle of green 

 spikelets, these mostly 3-flowered, the lower palet prominently 5-nerved ; sheaths 

 and leaves roughish ; ligule oblong, acute. A white-striped variety, lately in- 

 troduced, is cult, for ornament and very pretty. 



P. pratensis, COMMON M. or westward called KENTUCKY BLUE GRASS. 

 Dry meadows and pastures, spreading by running rootstocks, and with moi'e 

 crowded and often purplish panicle than the foregoing, flowering in earliest 

 summer, the sheath smooth, and ligule short and blunt; lower palet hairy 

 along the margins and the 5 nerves. 



Festuca, FESCUE GRASS. Known from Poa by the firmer or even cori- 

 aceous texture of the lower palet, which is convex on the back, not cobwebby, 

 and sometimes awn-tipped. 



F. OVina, SHEEP'S FESCUE. Valuable pasture and lawn-grass, - 2 hi.^h, 

 tufted, with slender or involute pale leaves, 3 - 8-flowered spikelets in a short 

 1 -sided panicle, open in flowering, contracted afterwards, the lower palet rolled 

 up, almost awl-shaped and tipped with a sharp point or bristle-like awn. 2/ 



