GRAMINE^E. ^GRASS FAMILY.) 563 



11. P. pratcnsis, L. (GKEEN or COMMOK MEADOW-GRASS.) Culms 

 (1 -3 high, from a creeping base) and sheaths smooth; branches of the py- 

 ramidal panicle commonly in fives, spreading ; spikelets 3 - 5-flowered ; flowers 

 5-nerval, lance-ovate, acate, hairy on the marginal nerve? and keel ; ligule blunt, 

 short. Common in dry soil : imported for pastures and meadows. Indigenous 

 at the White Mountains of New Hampshire and northward. May- July. (Eu.) 



12. P. comps'essa, L. (BLUE-GRASS. WIRE-GRASS.) Culms much 

 flattened, obliquely ascending (9' -18' high) from a creeping base, the uppermost 

 joint near the middle; leaves short, bluish-green; panicle dense and contracted 

 (expanding just at flowering), partly one-sided; the short branches often in 

 pairs, covered to near the base with the 4-9-flowered flat spikelets ; flowers 

 linear-elliptical, rather obtuse, hairy below on the lateral nerves and keel; ligule 

 short and blunt. Dry fields and banks, probably introduced with other and 

 more valuable grasses ; rarely in woods : apparently truly indigenous north- 

 ward. (Eu.) 



34. ERACrROSTIS, Beauv. ERAGROSTIS. 



Spikelets 2 - 70-flowercd, nearly as in Poa, except that the lower palea is but 

 3- (rarely 1-) nerved, not webby-haired at the base, and deciduous; the upper 

 persistent on the entire rhachis after the rest of the floAver has fallen. Culms 

 often branching. Leaves linear, frequently involute, and the ligule or throat of 

 the sheath bearded with long villous hairs. Panicle various. (An early name, 

 probably from epa, earth, and Agrostis, in allusion to the procumbent habit of 

 the original species.) 



* Prostrate and creeping, much-branched : root annual : spikelets flat, imperfectly 



dioecious, clustered, almost sessile, in the more fertile plant almost capitate. 



1. E. reptans, Nccs. Spikelets linear-lanceolate, 10-30-flowered, almost 

 sessile; flowers lance-ovate, acute; leaves short, almost awl-shaped, smoothish. 

 (Poa rcptans, Michx.) Gravelly river-borders; common. August. Flower- 

 branches 2' - 5' high. 



* # Diffusely spreading, or the flowering culms ascending, low (6' -15' high) : spike- 

 lets large (\' -' long], densely-flowered, flat, forming a narrow cr'owded panicle, 



2. E. PO^EOIDES, Beauv. Lower sheaths often hairy ; leaves flat, smooth ; 

 spikelets short-pedicelled, lance-linear or oblong-linear, 8 - 20-flowered, lead- 

 colored (2" -5" long) ; flowers ovate, obtuse, the lateral nerves evident. (Poa 

 Eragrostis, L.) Sandy waste places, eastward ; scarce. (Nat. from Eu.) 



Var. MEGASTACHYA. Sheaths mostly glabrous ; spikelets larger (^'-i' long), 

 becoming linear, whitish when old, 10-50-flowered. (E. megastachya, Link. 

 Briza Eragrostis, L.} Similar situations, and more common. Aug. Emits 

 a sharp, unpleasant odor. (Nat. from Eu.) 



* * * Erect, or in No. 3-5 diffusely spreading and ascending : panicle open, its 

 branches capillary , the spike-lets proportionally small, sometimes minute. (Number 

 of flowers in the spikel-t rtry variable, according to age, $-c.) 



*- Culms slender, branching and decumbent or spreading at the base, from an annual 

 root : leaves narrow, flat, soft : branches of the narrow panicle rather short and 

 thickly-flowered, not bearded in the axils, except sometimes the lowest spcainyly. 



