364 



PO A 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



PO A 



leaved; leaflets acute or jagged, gibbous at the base. Sta- 

 mina: filamenta three, capillary; antherse forked. Pistil: 

 germen roundish; styles two, reflex, villose; stigmas similar. 

 Pericarp: none; corolla cleaves to the seed, and does not 

 separate. Seed: single, oblong, acuminate, compressed on both 

 sides, covered. Observe. Some species have a two-flowered, 

 others a three or four flowered calix; and in some, the florets 

 are connected at the base by a fine web of folded silky threads. 

 ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix : two-valved, many-flowered ; 

 spikelet ovate; valves scariose at the edge, and sharpish. 

 For the propagation and culture of this important genus, 

 see Grass, Meadow, and Pasture. The species are, 



1. PoaAquatica; Water or Reed Meadow Grass. Panicle 

 erect, branched, loose; spikelets six-flowered, linear; florets 

 blunt, seven-nerved. Root perennial, creeping; culms from 

 three to six feet high, upright, leafy, the thickness of a reed 

 straw, two-edged, striated, smooth, the joints yellowish, and 

 these below rooting all round ; leaves sword-shaped; seeds 

 of a pale brown colour. This is one of our largest Grasses. 

 Immense tracts of land in the fens of Lincolnshire, Cambridge- 

 shire, and other counties, that formerly produced only use- 

 less aquatic plants, and which still, though drained by mills, 

 retain much moisture, are now covered with this Grass, which 

 not only affords rich pasturage in summer, but forms the 

 chief part of their winter fodder. It has a powerfully creep- 

 ing root, and bears mowing well; on the banks of the Thames 

 it is sometimes twice cut in one season. It grows not only in 

 very moist ground, but in the water itself, and with Cat's 

 Tail, Burr Reed, &c. soon fills up ditches, and occasions 

 them to require frequent cleansing. In this respect, it is a 

 formidable plant in slow rivers, which are freed from it in 

 the Isle of Ely by an invention called a Bear, which is an 

 iron roller, with a nnmber of pieces of iron, like small spades, 

 fixed in it; this is drawn up and down the river by horses 

 walking along the bank, and tears up the plants by the roots, 

 which are then borne down the stream. Like several other 

 species, this varies with viviparous flowers: they appear from 

 July to September. Native of most parts of Europe. 



2. Poa Alpina; Alpine Meadow Grass. Panicle diffused; 

 spikelets four-flowered, cordate; glumes ovate, subfalcaet, 

 free; lower stipules very short. Root perennial, with simple 

 elongated smooth fibres; culm a foot high, ascending, hav- 

 ing two joints, naked at top, round, purple, shining. Dr. 

 Smith says, that the glumes change into leaves, and a,t length 

 the fructification into a bud. It flowers in June and July; 

 and grows wild in the mountains of Lapland, Switzerland, 

 Silesia, Dauphiny, and Scotland. 



3. Poa Laxa; Loose Meadow Grass. Panicle contracted, 

 subracemed; spikelets three-flowered, pubescent at the base 

 and on the back; calictne glume's mucronate; glumes of the 

 corolla acute, of a dusky violet colour, with a membranaceous 

 white margin. Native of the mountains of Switzerland, 

 Bohemia, and Silesia. 



4. Poa Biflora; Two-flowered Meadow Grass. Panicle 

 dense; calices subbiflorous, smooth; culm ascending; flowers 

 numerous, minute. Native of the East Indies. 



5. Poa Hirta; Rough-haired Meadow Grass. Panicle 

 spreading, rod-like; calices subtriflorous, angular; sheaths 

 dotted, ciliate, as also are the leaves; keel of the calices finely 

 serrulate. Native of Japan. 



6. Poa Trivialis; Roughish Meadow Grass. Panicle dif- 

 fused; spikelets three-flowered; glumes lanceolate, five-nerved, 

 connected by a villus at the base; stipules elongated. Root 

 fibrous; culms decumbent at the base and rooting, then erect, 

 a foot and half high, simple, round, striated, somewhat rug- 

 ged, leafy, frequently purple; leaves almost erect, flaccid, 



sharpish, keeled, rugged, especially underneath and round 

 the edge. Dr. Withering remarks, that the root is creeping; 

 the whole plant rough; the height from one foot and a hall 

 to two feet or more; the panicle six or eight inches long, 

 and three or four broad when fully expanded; the florets 

 mostly three or four in each spikelet, but generally three. 

 Its creeping root, and the great roughness of the culm and 

 leaves, sufficiently distinguish it from the ninth species, to 

 which it has otherwise some resemblance. Willdenow says, 

 it is sufficiently distinguished by its very branching diffused 

 panicle, and especially by the great length of the ligule or 

 stipule. It is certainly one of our best Grasses, both for hay 

 and pasturage : without it, it is difficult to form a good 

 meadow. Its chief qualities are, that it produces a large 

 quantity of sweet tender leaves, preferred by cattle to most 

 others, and convertible into exceedingly fine hay. It is 

 an early Grass, flowering about the middle of June. It 

 does not bear frost so well, neither does it shoot so early 

 in the spring, as the ninth species; but when the weather 

 becomes warm enough to make Grasses in general shoot, 

 this grows faster, and produces a greater crop of bottom 

 leaves than most others. Whilst that is found chiefly in 

 dry pastures, this principally occurs in moist meadows, or 

 on the edges of wet ditches; it loves moisture and a shelter- 

 ed situation. In wet ground it grows very tall, but in poor 

 dry pastures it is diminutive. It is no small recomendation, 

 says Mr. Curtis, to this Grass, that it is a principal ingre- 

 dient in that uncommonly productive meadow near Salis- 

 bury, mentioned by Stillingfleet, and described in the first 

 volume of the Memoirs of the Bath Agricultural Society. 



7. Poa Angustifolia ; Narrow-leaved Meadow Grass. 

 Panicle diffused; spikelets four-flowered, pubescent; culm 

 erect, round. Linneus mentions this grass as growing every 

 where with the preceding species in Sweden and Lapland. 

 Dr. Smith thinks it a variety of the ninth species. 



8. Poa Gerardi; Panicled Meadow Grass. Panicle erect; 

 spikelets three-flowered, smooth; corollas acuminate, twice as 

 long as the calix. Culm round, smooth, straight, a foot high 

 and more; corollas keeled, equal in length, of an elegant 

 bay colour, large, one wider than the other. It flowers in 

 April and May. Native of the mountains of France, Italy, 

 and Switzerland. 



9. Poa Pratensis; Smooth-stalked or Great Meadow 

 Grass. Panicle diffused; spikelets four-flowered; glumes 

 lanceolate, five-nerved, connected by a villus; stipule abbre- 

 viated, blunt. Root perennial, creeping by runners, easily 

 penetrating into the earth and crevices of walls. The late 

 Mr. Curtis, whose attention to Grasses is well known, first 

 accurately distinguished this from the sixth species. As they 

 are so alike in their general appearance as not to be distin- 

 tinguished without nice examination, it may be well to give 

 his observations on them both, as a good botanical lesson. 

 This species is smooth in every part; but the stalks, the 

 leaves with their sheaths, and the branches of the panicle, all 

 feel rough, if the plant be drawn downward between the thumb 

 and finger. In the sixth species, the sheath of the leaf is 

 flatter and more deeply flatted. Its root is simply fibrous; that 

 of this species creeps, and sends out many white shoots. But 

 what most plainly distinguishes them, is, that in the Pratensis 

 the membrane at the bottom of the leaf where the sheath 

 begins is very short and blunt; but in the Trivialis, long and 

 pointed. This is obvious even to a common observer, and 

 never fails, let the Grass vary ever so much in size and other 

 respects. These Grasses differ also in the size of the spike- 

 lets, and the number of flowers contained in each; in this 

 they are quinqueflorous, but biflorous or triftorons in the sixth 



