363 



PO A 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



PO A 



spreading; lower spikelets three-flowered, (three to five,) up- 

 per twelve-flowered. Culms rigid, finally viscid ; roots arti- 

 culate, stoloniferous, producing bundles of leafy culms, a 

 span high, and round. The culms, peduncles, pedicels, and 

 calices, are all so clammy as to besmear the feet and legs of 

 those who walk among this Grass, and cover them with the 

 glumes. It fills the air with an odour of turpentine, that is 

 not unpleasant, especially in the evening. Found in the dry 

 gravelly soils of Malabar. 



50. Poa Nemoralis ; Wood Meadow Grass. Panicle and 

 leaves attenuated ; spikelets lanceolate, three-flowered or 

 thereabouts; glumes acutely obsoletely five-nerved; stipule 

 very short, crenate. Root creeping a little ; culms several, 

 upright, a foot and half high, slender, slightly compressed, 

 striated, smooth. There is a variety wh'ich has the appear- 

 ance of the sixth or ninth species ; but it is distinguished by 

 the species being unconnated; though hairy at the base, more 

 acute, and less nerved ; and by the stipule being very short, 

 subcrenate or ciliate; insomuch that it cannot by any means 

 be confounded with them. It flowers in June. Native of 

 many parts of Europe, in woods and shady places : it is most 

 common in the northern parts of Great Britain. 



51. Poa Contracta ; Contracted Meadow Grass, Panicle 

 contracted ; florets lanceolate, three together, naked, sessile; 

 leaves filiform. This is a very smooth grass, two feet high 

 and more, with a thick culm ; peduncles long and strict. 

 Native of the East Indies. 



52. Poa Filiformis; Thread-leaved Meadow Grass. Pani- 

 cle spreading; spikelets acute, four-flowered; leaves filiform. 

 Native of the Cape. 



53. Poa Bulbosa; Bulbous Meadow Grass. Panicle sub- 

 flexuose ; spikelets four-flowered ; glumes connected by a 

 villus; leaves serrulate; culm bulbous at the base. Root 

 perennial, fibrous, whitish, from which arise, in clusters, a 

 sort of bulbs involved in several whitish or brownish coats, 

 which are the sheaths of the leaves, stretched out almost an 

 inch in length, and producing bundles of leaves, or else the 

 culms. Native of Sweden, Germany, Spain, Barbary, and 

 the Levant, in dry sandy places ; with us it is found only on 

 the sandy sea-coast, over which its little dry bulbs are blown 

 in various directions in summer, till the rains in autumn 

 make them vegetate, and take deep root: the plants then yield 

 abundance of short close herbage, a welcome spring food for 

 cattle ; and flower in April and May. 



54. Poa Disticha ; Double-rowed Meadow Grass. Spike- 

 lets compressed, four-flowered, sessile, distich, spiked. This 

 is a middle species between Poa Cynosurus and Triticum. 

 Native of Carinthia, Switzerland, and Italy, on the tops of 

 the mountains. 



55. Poa Bifaria ; Recurved-spiked Meadow Grass. Spike- 

 lets sessile, distich ; lower remote, erect ; upper approximat- 

 ing, recurved. The whole of this grass is smooth. Native 

 of the East Indies. 



56. Poa Bromoides ; Bromc-like Meadow Grass. Sub- 

 spiked : spikelets lanceolate, twenty-five flowered, lower on 

 short pedicels, upper sessile; leaves bifarious, involuted. 

 Supposed to be a native of Lima. 



57. Poa Spicata; Spike-panicled Meadow Grass. Panicle 

 spiked: flowers awl-shaped; florets remote. Culms several, 

 ascending from the base, a hand in height, covered on every 

 side with the sheaths of the leaves. It has the habit of a 

 Festuca. Native of Portugal. 



58. Poa Distans ; Reflexed Meadow Grass. Panicle 

 branched, effused ; branches finally reflexed ; spikelets five- 

 flowered ; florets very blunt, obsoletely five-nerved, shining. 

 Root perennial, fibrous; culms several, decumbent at the base, 



about a foot high, (Curtis says, a foot and half; and Wither- 

 ing, only from nine to twelve inches,) round, leafy, striated, 

 smooth. Though at first sight this Grass bears a near resem- 

 blance to the seventeenth species, and no doubt is often 

 taken for that, it is, however, considerably taller ; its leaves 

 are narrower in proportion, and much more glaucous ; its 

 spikelets also are much narrower as well as longer, and of 

 course contain many more florets, which are for the most 

 part prettily variegated with pale green and purple : but the 

 chief character which distinguishes this from the seventeenth 

 species, lies in the branches of the panicle, which, as the 

 plant goes out of bloom, are reflected or stretched out back- 

 wards, so as sometimes to touch the culm ; this is effected by 

 little tubercles at the base of the branches, on their upper 

 sides only, which increasing in size as the plant advances in 

 its flowering, forces them backwards. Six years' cultivation 

 made no alteration in the appearance of this Grass, which 

 flowers from June to September, and is not of sufficient merit 

 to recommend it for agricultural purposes. Native of the 

 Palatinate, Silesia, Austria, and England. Hudson found it 

 in Devonshire, Kent, Yorkshire, and Lancashire, on a sandy 

 soil. Mr. Curtis says, it is common in pasture's, and by road- 

 sides on our sea-coasts, but that, like the forty-first species, it 

 is not confined to maritime situations, for he found it among 

 the grassy herbage on the right hand of the horse road lead- 

 ing up the hill to Hampstead, in tolerable plenty. 



59. Poa Divaricata ; Spreading Meadow Grass. Branches 

 of the panicle corymbed ; peduncles club-shaped ; spikelets 

 four-flowered; leaflets filiform. Culms several, a hand in 

 height, with one or two leaves on them, white or reddish ; 

 leaves two or three inches long, with wide sheaths. This is 

 a small, delicate, slender, annual grass, flowering in the 

 spring : the thickened flower-stalks, and the crowded little 

 spikelets, are characteristic of this species. Native of the 

 south of France and Barbary. 



60. Poa Cristata ; Crested Meadow Grass. Panicle 

 spiked ; calices somewhat hairy, four-flowered or thereabouts, 

 longer than the peduncle; petals awned. Root cespitose, 

 composed of simple -tomentose fibres; culms solitary, simple, 

 erect, a span high, even, leafy, especially at the base. From 

 the habit, this Grass should be considered as an Aira, rather 

 than a Poa ; nor does the number of florets much stand in 

 the way, these generally being only two ; the point of the 

 glume is sometimes extended into a short awn. Native of 

 Germany, Switzerland, France, England, and Barbary, in dry 

 pastures, by way and wood sides, in barren land, and some- 

 times on walls ; flowering from June to August. 



61. Poa Peruviana; Peruvian Meadow Grass. Panicle 

 spiked; spikelets five-flowered, ovate; leaves and culms pro- 

 cumbent, hirsute. Native of Peru. This species is an an- 

 nual, and flowers all the summer in the open air, but must 

 be put into the stove in winter. 



62. Poa Glomerata; Glomerate-panicled Meadow Grass. 

 Panicle spiked, glomerate ; spikelets four-flowered ; corollas 

 ciliate. Native of the Cape. 



63. Poa Ciliaris; Ciliated Meadow Grass. Panicle con- 

 tracted ; inner valves of the glumes hairy, ciliate; culm from 

 two inches to half a foot in height, simple, slender, erect, 

 smooth. This is a middle species between Briza and Poa. 

 Browne says,that it seldom rises above six or seven inches, 

 and is sustained by a very slender weakly stalk ; it is easily 

 distinguished by its delicate branches, fine leaves, and downy 

 head. Linneus remarks, that the panicle is red, and the 

 cilias of the glumes white. Annual, flowering in July and 

 August. Native of Jamaica and other West India Islands, 

 on sandy grounds. 



