1847.] On the Grasses. 239 



Cultivated fields in New York and Pennsylvania, to Carolina. 

 This grass is often troublesome in corn-fields. When young, cattle 

 or sheep are fond of it, preventing its arrival at maturity on sum- 

 mer fallows. 



PoA Capillaris, Linn. — Hairy Meadow Grass. 



Panicle large, spreading, branches capillary and much divided, 

 smooth; spikelets, two to five flowered, at the extremity of the 

 branchlets, flowers not webbed, purple; culm and panicle ten to 

 twenty inches high, much branched at the base, sheaths hairy at 

 the throat; leaves linear; glumes unequal, acute, keel scabrous, 

 palea ovate, acute, caryopsis ovoid, yellowish brown, hairy at the 

 apex. — Linn., sp. 1, p. 68. 



Dry sterile fields, from New York to Carolina, and as far west 

 as Kentucky. 



PoA Refracta, Muhl. — Refracted Meadow Grass. 



Panicle very large, diffuse, hairy in the axils of the branches; 

 branches refracted, scabrous and pectinate under a lens, flowers 

 pistant, racemose; spikelets oblong linear, fifteen to twenty flow- 

 ered; glumes unequal, lanceolate, accuminate, slightly serrate on 

 the keel; palea unequal; upper palea oblong linear, lower palea 

 ovate acute, keel serrate under a lens; caryopsis oblong spheroid, 

 yellowish brown; leaves six to ten inches long, linear, hairy on 

 the upper surface; lower surface smooth and striate; stem, includ- 

 ing the panicle, one and a half to two feet high; root perennial. — 

 Muhl., p. 146; Ell, sk. 1, p. 156. 



In the pine barrens of Carolina, Georgia and Florida, in damp 

 soils. 



PoA Tenuis, (Ell., sk. 1, p. 156.) — Slender Meadow Grass. 



Panicle very large, branches verticillate, slightly hairy in the 

 lower axils; branchlets numerous, divaricate, capillary; spikelets 

 two to three flowered; glumes unequal, ovate, lanceolate, acute, 

 nearly transparent; palea ovate, lanceolate, acute, slightly keeled, 

 anthers and stamens brown; leaves twelve to eighteen inches long, 

 rough, sparingly haired, sheath with long hairs in the throat; root 

 perennial; culm oblique or erect; often several culms from the 

 same root, and decumbent from the weight of the large panicle, 

 which is sometimes more than two feet long, and twelve to six- 

 teen inches in diameter. Flowers July, August. 



Wet places, banks of streams, in rich soils; Carolina, Georgia, 

 Florida and Alabama — where we have often seen it in corn or 

 cotton fields, in spots not subjected to the plow. 



