ALOPECURUS. 137 



3, ALOPECURLS Linnaeus. FOXTAIL GRASS. 



GENERIC CHARACTER. 



Spikelets 1-flowered ; glumes boat-shaped, strongly 

 compressed and keeled, nearly equal, united at the 

 base, equalling or exceeding the lower palet, which 

 is awned at the back, below the middle ; upper palet 

 wanting ; stamens 3 ; styles mostly united ; stigmas 

 long and feathered ; clusters contracted into a cylin- 

 drical and soft, dense spike ; root perennial. 



(Name from two Greek words, signifying fox and 

 .tail, the popular appellation, from the shape of 

 spike.) 



1. ALOPECURUS PRATENSIS, Linnceus (Meadow 

 Foxtail). See page 35. 



2. ALOPECURUS GENICULATUS, Linnceus (Floating 

 Foxtail. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 



Culm ascending, bent at the lower joints ; palet ra- 

 ther shorter than the obtuse glumes, the awn from 

 near its base, and projecting half its length beyond 

 it ; anthers linear ; the upper leaf as long as its 

 sheath. Moist meadows eastward ; flowera in May 

 and June. 



This grass grows in situations so liable to inunda- 

 tion, that the other good grasses, if sown there, are 

 soon expelled. In respect to the degree of moisture 

 which it will support, it stands between the rough- 

 stalked poa and the flote fescue, and thus forms a 

 connecting link bet ween the fens and moister meadow 

 lands in England, for it is found in some of the rich- 



