TRIANDUIA. DIGYNIA. 65 



Early flowering subalpine grasses, gi-owlng in calcare- 

 ous mountains. 



Species. 1. 5. * Dactyhides. Culm setaceous, leafy; 

 leaves short, flat, subulate, and somewhat hairy; stipules 

 bearded; spikes 2 or 3, few- flowered; flowers in 2 rows, 

 disposed upon an unilateral rachis, calix mostly 2-flower- 

 ed, and with the corolla acuminate and entire. 



Hab. On tiie open grassy plains of the Missouri; abun- 

 dant. Flowers in .May and June. v.v. Root after flower- 

 ing resembling a bulb. 



Culm siTooth and round, furnished with 2 or 3 leaves, 

 &l)out 4 or 5 inches high. I^eaves flat, subulate, and 

 somevvhat hairy, 1 to 2 inches in length, and about 2 

 lines wide; sheathes shorter than the internodes, very 

 hairy around the stipules. Spikes 2 or 3, somewhat oval,- 

 subtended by a sins^le leaf with which they are at first 

 sheatlied; rachis compressed, margined, spikeiets 6 to 8, 

 by pairs, inclined to one side. Calix 2-valved, 2 or 3-flow- 

 ered, valves very unequal, each with a single nerve and 

 carinate, the larger oblong-ovate, mucronulate. Outer 

 valve of the covolla oblong-lnnceolate, entire, 3-nerved, 

 smooth, and membranaceous, longer than the calix; inner 

 2-nerved, nearly the length of the outer. Anthers linear, 

 entire, fulvous, exsei-ted- Styles filiform, pubescent. 



This species appears on the one hand, allied to Athc' 

 ropogoTiy and on tlie other to Dactylis. Though rather a 

 Sesleria ihan any other genus, it recedes from it in hav- 

 ing the valves of the corolla entire at the apex, and thus 

 it approaches Dactylis, at least, th.e D.glomerata. 



With the exception of tlie present species, the genus 

 Sesleria is'' confined to the alpine regions of Northern 

 Europe. 



§ III. Calyces manyjlowered, scattered. 

 96. POA. Z. (Meaciow-grass.) 



Calijo 2-Viiivc(l, many llf)\vered. Sjnkelets 

 more or less ovate, witliout awns, valves some- 

 what acute, discoloured, with scaiiose mar- 

 gins. 



Flowers paniculate, panicles many-flowered, branches 

 often semiverticillate, one sided, coarctate, or spreading; 

 in several species the flower glumes ai-e connected at the 

 base by a tomentun^; or villus 



Species. 1. P. trivivJis. "2. prat€7isis. 3. viridis, (distin- 

 guished from F. pmimsis by the remarkable compres- 



