P O A 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



P O A 



367 



nicle diffused; spikelets twelve-flowered; flowers diapha- 

 nous, even, with a brown spot within. Culm a foot and half 

 high, ascending, even, the thickness of a pigeon's quill, with 

 very swelling joints, often three in number Native of 

 Malabar. 



39. Poa Nutans ; Nodding Meadow Grass. Panicle con- 

 tracted, nodding at the top ; spikelets ten-flowered ; valves 

 reversed. Culms from two to three feet high, round, erect, 

 simple ; leaves narrow, short ; branches of the panicle in 

 half whorls. Native of Tranquebar. It is common on the 

 borders of paddy-grounds in the East Indies. 



40. PoaTenella; Small Meadow Grass. Panicle oblong, 

 capillary, somewhat whorled ; flowers six together, very 

 minute, nodding. Root annual; culms even, prostrate, 

 branched at bottom. Not only the leaves at the throat or 

 opening are hairy, but the whole panicle at the base of the 

 peduncles has bundles of long white hairs, from three to six- 

 teen in number. It flowers in July and August. Native of 

 the East Indies. 



41. Poa Maritima; Creeping Sea Meadow Grass. Panicle 

 branched, somewhat squeezed together; spikelets five-flower- 

 ed ; florets bluntish, roundish, obsoletely five-nerved; root 

 creeping. Culms decumbent at the base, from six inches to 

 a foot in height, very smooth, round, striated, leafy. Mr. 

 Lightfoot remarks, that this is nearly related to Festuca Flu- 

 itans, and that perhaps sea water may occasion the difference : 

 but this is an improbable opinion, because the outer and 

 larger valve of the corolla in this plant wants the ribs, which 

 are so strongly marked in Festuca Fluitans ; the inner valve 

 also wants the open cleft at the end ; and the Flote Fescue 

 Grass lias been examined while growing in the salt marshes 

 at Lymington, and was found to vary but little from that 

 growing in inland places. Willdenow observes, that in the wild 

 plant the panicle is squeezed close, narrow, and directed one 

 way, with spikelets having from four to eight flowers ; but 

 in a garden the panicle is divaricate, and the spikelets have 

 from five to twelve flowers. Native of Denmark, Britain, 

 Germany, and France, on sandy coasts and in small marshes. 

 Found also about Yarmouth ; between Bristol and the Hot- 

 wells ; near the canal from Droitwich to the Severn ; in the 

 meadows near Wisbeach, &c. ; also in Scotland, on the isles 

 of Oransa and Skye, and at Loch Broom in Ross-shire. It 

 flowers in July. 



42. Poa Procurribens ; Procumbent Sea Meadow Grass. 

 Panicle lanceolate, directed one way, squeezed close, rug- 

 ged ; rachis round ; spikes four or five flowered ; flowers 

 bluntish, nerved. Root fibrous, forming a turf; herb glau- 

 cous ; culms several, more or less prostrate, about a span 

 long, leafy, smooth, bent at the joints. Dr. Smith says that 

 this Grass has an annual root, though Mr. Curtis thought it 

 perennial. In general habit it comes near to the seventeenth 

 species, and also bears some affinity to the following species, 

 though sufficiently distinct from them and all others. The 

 stalks are for the most part procumbent ; but this procum- 

 bence does not appear to originate in the usual way from the 

 weakness of the stalk, but from its being bent downwards at 

 a joint near its base ; as every stem is not thus acted on, 

 some are frequently found nearly upright: the foliage is of 

 a glaucous hue, and, if examined with a magnifier, is found to 

 be covered with numerous rough silvery particles. The panicle 

 has a greater degree of rigidity than that of the seventeenth 

 species ; the spikelets are much longer, less flat, and more 

 regularly distant from each other; and each floret is ciliated 

 at its base. This species was found by Mr. Curtis at the 

 foot of St. Vincent's Rocks, on the edge of the river Severn. 

 It has since been seen in some quantity on the inundated 



VOL. ii. 96. 



parts of the waste ground west of the wet-dock near Clifton; 

 and abundantly on the pier at Scarborough, within the spray 

 of the sea. Culture produces little alteration in its appear- 

 ance. Native of sandy inundated waste ground, near the 

 sea ; in England, Holland, and Sicily. 



43. Poa Rigida ; Hard Meadow Grass. Panicle lanceo- 

 late, distich, and pointing one way, squeezed close, smooth ; 

 rachis margined ; spikelets seven-flowered ; flowers round, 

 nerveless; root annual, furnished with few fibres. Dr. Wi- 

 thering remarks, that this may be distinguished from all the 

 other species by the rachis or main fruit-stalk being broad 

 on the side opposite to the direction of the branches, convex, 

 and edged with a paler green border. Mr. Curtis observes, 

 that in dry and barren situations the stalks sometimes are 

 found simple, the panicle also not branched, and the spike- 

 lets, instead of containing about eight flowers, have no more 

 than three or four; in which case some make it another species. 

 The variation arising from an excess or scantiness of nourish- 

 ment, is what most plants are subject to ; and to form species 

 upon such foundations is to multiply plants without end. 

 A complete knowledge of a plant, and of a Grass especially, 

 is only to be attained by observing it at the different periods 

 of its growth in all the various situations in which it occurs. 

 Native of England, Holland, France,. Italy, and Germany, 

 also in Barbary, in dry, sandy, or stony places, on walls and 

 roofs ; flowering from May to August. 



44. Poa Spinosa ; Thorny Meadow Grass. Branches of 

 the panicle alternate, compressed, spinescent; spikelets alter- 

 nate, peduncled, ten-flowered; culm branched. See Festuca 

 Spinosa, which is the same plant. 



45. Poa Compressa; Flat-stalked Meadow Grass. Pani- 

 cle squeezed close, directed one way; culm ascending, com- 

 pressed ; florets angular, connected at the base by a com- 

 plicated villus. Root perennial, creeping, consisting of downy 

 fibres, thrown out from the lowest part of the stem, which is 

 decumbent at the base, then rises obliquely, and is upright at 

 the top, where it is naked, at bottom it is leafy ; the first or 

 lower joints are bent, the uppermost very long; it is striated, 

 smooth, and about a foot high, and is very much compressed ; 

 rachis from roundish flatted ; and all the branchlets at first 

 close and erect, acutely angular and rough, a little zigzag ; 

 as they flower, they spread considerably ; but immediately after 

 the discharge of the pollen they become again close pressed 

 to the main branch, so that the upper part of the panicle looks 

 as if it expanded first. By this mark the Grass may be known 

 at a distance. Native of most parts of Europe, in dry pas- 

 tures ; on the tops of walls that are a little covered with earth ; 

 upon house-tops; and in other very dry places; where it may 

 be found in flower from June to September, and may be easily 

 discriminated by its compressed stem. It can hardly be put 

 loan agricultural use, though all cattle eat it; for it does not 

 thrive in moist or manured ground, and there are many better 

 Grasses for dry situations. 



46. Poa Sarmentosa; Sarmentose Meadow Grass. Pani- 

 cle squeezed close; spikelets lanceolate, ten-flowered; culm 

 sarmentose. Native of the Cape. 



47. Poa Striata; Striated Meadow Grass. Panicle spread- 

 ing; spikelets ovate, ten-flowered or thereabouts; culm creep- 

 ing. Native of the Cape. 



48. Poa Amboinensis. Panicle squeezed close, directed 

 one way ; culm round ; inner valve of the corollas linear, 

 curved, ciliate, like the sixty-third species ; from which it 

 differs in having the cilias many times smaller, the culms 

 depressed, and the leaves short, scarcely an inch in length. 

 Native of the East Indies. 



49. Poa Viscosa ; Viscid Meadow Grass. Panicle oblong, 

 5 A 



