472 GRAMINE^J. [Phalaris. 



P. arundina cea, L. ; panicle elongate, branches short. 

 Rivers, lakes, &c, N. to Shetland ; ascending to nearly 1,400 ft. in N. England ; 

 Ireland ; Channel Islands ; fl. July-Aug.— Perennial, glabrous. Rootstock 

 creeping. Stems 2-6 ft., stout, erect. Leaves §-§ in. broad, flat ; sheaths 

 smooth ; ligule large. Panicle 4-8 in., suberect; branches scabrid, spread- 

 ing only when flowering. Spikelets £ in., ovate, ofteu purplish ; empty 

 glumes 3-nerved, acuminate, glabrous ; fl. glume rather shorter, ovate- 

 lanceolate, nerveless, silky ; scales 2, narrow, silky. — Distrib. N. temp, and 

 Arctic regions. 



6. ANTHOXAN'THUM, L. VERNAL GRASS. 



Sweet-scented. Spikelets cylindric, in a spike-like panicle, 1-fld., pro- 

 terogynous. Glumes 6 (or 5 and a palea) ; 2 lowest persistent acute or 

 mucronate, very unequal, lowest 1-nerved ; 2d large, 3-nerved ; 3d and 4th 

 short, keeled, hairy, 2-fid with a dorsal bent awn ; 5th fl. glume, and 6th 

 minute hyaline obtuse; awnless, outer broad 5-7-nerved, inner narrow 

 (palea ?) 1-nerved. Scales 0. Stamens 2 ; anthers large, linear, purple 

 or yellow. Ovary glabrous ; styles long, stigmas feathery. Fruit terete, 

 acute, enclosed in the brown shining fl. glume and palea. — Distrib. N. 

 temp, and cold regions of the Old World ; species 4 or 5. — Etym. &v6os 

 and ^auQos, from the yellow anthers. 



A. odora'tura, L. ; perennial, panicle interrupted below, awn short 



scarcely exserted. 



Meadows, &c, N. to Shetland ; ascends to 3,400 ft. in the Highlands ; Ireland ; 

 Channel Islands ; fl. May-June.— Stems 6-18 in., shining, glabrous or 

 scabrid. Leaves flat, hairy; sheaths furrowed, often pubescent, mouth 

 hairy. Panicle 1-5 in., pubescent or villous ; branches short. Spikelets 

 J-J in., fascicled, often squarrose, green, glabrous or hairy ; 2 lowest 

 glumes ovata, acute, upper lanceolate, almost awned ; two succeeding awned 

 glumes curved, with obliquely truncate tips ; fl. glume glabrous. — Distrib. 

 Europe (Arctic), N. Africa, N. Asia, Greenland ; introd. in N. America. — 

 Odour of Woodruff. 



A. Puel'ii, Lecoq. and Lamotte ; annual, very slender, much branched, 



panicle lax, awn long slender much exserted. 



Pastures and fields, Roxburgh to Devon and Hants, &c. ; a modern introduc- 

 tion. — Stems very numerous from the root, 6-10 in., bent at the nodes. 

 Leaves narrow, glabrous or hairy ; sheaths smooth. Panicle 1-2 no., sub- 

 acute. Spikelets pedicelled ; 2 lowest glumes very unequal, scaberulous, 

 membranous, lower half the length of the acuminate upper ; awned glumes 

 straight, with erose tips. — Distrib. S. and Central Europe, Mediterranean. 

 — Odour faint. 



7. HIEROCHLO'E, Gmelin. Holy Grass. 

 Spikelets laterally compressed, panicled, 3-fld. ; upper flower 2-sexual, 

 2-audrous ; 2 lower male, 3-androus. Empty glumes subequal, about 

 equalling the flowering, membranous, keeled, 3-nerved. Fl. glumes 



