630 GRAMINEiE. (GRASS FAMILY.) 



7. P. prat6nsis, L. (Green or Common Meadow-Grass. Kentuckt 

 Blue-Guass.) Culms sending oft" copious running roolstorks from the base, and 

 tlie slu'utlis smooth ; ligide short and limit ; panicle short-pviivmidal ; spikeltts 3 - 5- 

 flowered, crowdid, and most of tliem atiuost aesslli: on the branches, ovate lanceo- 

 late or ovate ; loiter pulet 5-nerred, lunry along the margins as well as the keel. — 

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

 mountain regions from X. Penn. northward. May -July. (Eu.) 



8. P. trivi.VliS; L. (lloLGHisii Meadow-Gkass.) Culms erect from a 

 somewhat decumbent base, but no distinct running rootstocks ; sheaths andlences 

 more or less rough; lignle oblong, acute; panicle longer or with the branches more 

 distant ; spikelets mostly 3-flowered, broader upwards ; lower palet prominentti/ 

 b-nerved, naked at the margins: otherwise nearly as in the preceding. — Moist 

 meadows, &c., July. (Nat. from Eu.) 



-t- •»- Spikelets fewer and more scattered, on slender pedicels: plants soft and smooth, 



flowering early. (No running rontstocks, except in No. 13.) 

 ■*^ Spikelets small (l"-2" long), pale green, rather loosely 2 - A-floiccrcd : flowers 



oblong, obtuse : lower palet scarcely scariuus-tipped : culm-leaves lunce-lincar, acute, 



1' -3' long. 



9. P. sylvdstris, Gray. Culm flatfish, erect ; branches of the oblong-pyram- 

 idal panicle short, numerous, in fives or more ; lower palet villous on the keelflir 

 its whole length, and on the margins below the middle, sparingly webbed at the base. 

 — Rocky woods and meadows, W. New York, Penn. and Virginia to Wisconsin, 

 Kentucky, and southward. June. 



10. P. d^bilis, Torr. Culms terete, weak ; branches of the small panicle 

 few and slender (the lower H'-2' long to the few spikelets), in pairs and threes; 

 flowers very obtuse, smo -th and glabrous, except a sparing web at their base. — 

 Rocky woodlands, Rhode Island and N. New York to Wisconsin. May. 



ft- ++ Spikelets 2" long, light green: oblong-lanceolate flowers and both glumes acute. 



11. P. alsbdes, Gray. Leaves rather narrowly linear, acute, the upper- 

 most ('2|'-4' long) often sheathing the base of the narrow and loose panicle, the 

 capillary branches of which are appressed when young, and mostly in threes or 

 fours ; lower palet very obscurely nerved, villous on the keel below, and with a 

 narrow cobwebby tuft at its base, otherwise glabrous. (P. ncmoralis, Torr. ^ 

 Ed. 1 : but wholly different from the European species of that name.) — Woods, 

 on hillsides. New England to Penn. and Wisconsin. May, June. 



++++++ Spdcclets larger [y - 4" long) , pale green, rarely purple-tingrd, flw and 

 scattered at the extremity of the long and capillary branches (mostly in pairs or 

 threes) of the very diffuse panicle: flowers 3-6, loose, oblong and obtuse, us is 

 the larger glume: lower pabt couspicnnusly sctirious at the ape.r, villous beloiv the 

 middle on the keel and margins: culms flatlish, smooth. 



12. P. flexuosa, Muhl. (not of Wahl.) Culms l°-S° high, tufted; its 

 leaves all linear (2' -5' long) and gradually taper-pointed; panicle very effuse (its 

 branches 2' -4' long to the 4-6-flowered spikelets or first ramification); lower 

 palet promin/nily nerved, no web at the base. (P. autumnalis, Muhl. in Ell. P. 

 campyle, Schult.) — Dry woods, Virginia, Kentucky, and .southward. Feb. - 

 May. — Wrongly confounded with the last, but near it. P. autumnalis is an 



