Fescue Tribe 49 



(1-3) linear and consisting of many distichously imbri- 

 cated obtuse empty glumes. Fertile spikelets 1-flowered, 

 with rachilla prolonged into a slender stipe and bearing 

 a small empty awned glume or reduced to an awn. 

 Empty glumes 2, 1-nerved, acuminate or short-awned, 

 slightly unequal; flowering glume broader, 1-nerved, 

 bearing a slender awn just below the apex. Palea n'ar- 

 row, 2-keeled. Stamens 3. Styles short, distinct ; stig- 

 mas barbellate. 



1. L. aurea (L.) Moench. (GOLDEN-TOP.) Annual; culms 

 tufted, 2-5 dm. high; sheaths smooth; blades 5-8 mm. wide; 

 panicle linear or oval, 5-8 cm. long; empty glumes of the fertile 

 spikelets narrow, keeled, 4-4.5 mm. long; flowering glume 3 mm. 

 long, oval, bearing a dorsal awn a little below the apex, 6-9 mm. 

 long. 



Common on grassy plains and hills. Native of southern Europe. 



34. POA L. MEADOW-GRASS. 



Annual or perennial grasses with flat or convolute 

 leaves and contracted or open panicles. Spikelets 2-6- 

 flowered, compressed, the rachilla usually glabrous. 

 Flowers perfect or rarely dioecious. Glumes membran- 

 ous, keeled ; the 2 lower empty, 1-3-nerved ; the flower- 

 ing glumes longer than the empty ones, generally with 

 a tuft of cobwebby hairs at the base, 5-nerved, the mar- 

 ginal nerves usually pubescent, often also the dorsal one. 

 Palea a little shorter than the glumes, 2-nerved or 

 2-keeled. Stamens 3. Styles short, distinct. Grain 

 free or sometimes adherent to the palea. 



* Annuals. 



1. P. annua L. Annual; culms weak, compressed, 5-30 cm. 

 long, decumbent ; ligule 2-3 mm. long ; blades of the sterile shoots 

 }4~% as long as the culms ; culm leaves 3, flat; panicle subsecund, 

 ovoid, 2-5 cm. long, its branches usually in pairs, the longest 

 2.5 cm. long, bearing spikelets above the middle; spikelets nearly 



