562 GRAMINE.E. (GRASS FAMILY.) 



*-< + Flowers (oblong-lanceolate) and both glumes acute : panicle narrow. 



5. P. alsodes. Leaves rather narrowly linear, acute, the uppermost 

 (2^' - 4' long) often sheathing the base of the panicle, the capillary branches of 

 which are appressed when young, and mostly in threes or fours ; spikelets 3- 

 flowered (pale green, soft) ; lower palea very obscurely nerved, villous on the 

 keel below, and with a narrow cobwebby tuft at its base, otherwise glabrous. 

 (P. nemoralis, Torr. fr ed. 1 : but wholly different from the European species of 

 that name.) Woods, on hill-sides, New England to Wisconsin. May, June. 

 *--!--(- Branches of the rather narrow but loose long-peduncled panicle in threes or 



Jives, or rarely in pairs, short or shortish, above bearing scattered and rather few 

 spikelets; these barely 2" long, pale green, rather loosely 2 - ^-flowered : flowers 

 (oblong) and glumes obtuse ; lower palea scarcely scarious-tipped : plant very smooth, 

 slender (l-3 high) : culm-leaves lance-linear, acute, l'-3' long, soft. 



6. P. clebilis, Torr. Culm terete, weak ; branches of the small panicle 

 Blender (the lower l'-2' long to the few spikelets), in pairs and threes ; flowers 

 very obtuse, smooth and glabrous, except a sparing web at then* base. Rocky 

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



7. P. sylvestris. Culm flatfish, erect; branches of the oblong-pyramidal 

 panicle short, in fives or more ; lower palea villous on the keel for its whole kngth, 

 and on the margins below the middle, sparingly webbed at the base. Rocky woods 

 and meadows, Ohio to Wisconsin, Kentucky, and southward. June. 



_ *- +- -K- Branches of the narrow or oblong panicle mostly short, in fives or some- 

 times in twos and threes, rough, mostly compound and bearing very numerous closely- 

 flowered spikelets : flowers acute or acutish, more or less webbed at the base. 



- Panicle open, its branches in fives : the 3 - b-flowered spikelets all distinctly pedicelled, 

 acute, slightly flattened ; lower palea villous or pubescent on the keel and marginal 

 nerves, the intermediate nerves obsolete: culms erect (2 -3 high), terete, growing 

 in tufts, not at all stoloniferous at the base. 



8. P. scrotiiia, Ehrhart. (FALSE RED-TOP. FOWL MEADOW-GEASS.) 

 Leaves narrowly linear ; ligules elongated; spikelets 2-4- (rarely 5-) flowered (!"- 

 2" long) ; flowers acutish, green, often tinged with dull purple. (P. nemoralis, 

 Pursh. P. crocata, Michx. belongs to this or the next.) Wet meadows and 

 low banks of streams ; common everywhere northward. July, Aug. A good 

 grass for moist meadows. (Eu.) 



9. P. no ill oral is, L. Leaves linear; ligules obsolete or very short; spike- 

 lets 4 - ^-flowered, rather larger, and the flowers and glumes mare sharply acute and 

 narrower ; otherwise nearly as in the preceding, which is too nearly related to 

 it. Wisconsin (Lapham), and northward. (Eu.) 



-< -n- Panicle with the flattened spikelets crowded on the branches, mostly short-pedi- 

 celled, sometimes almost sessile: culms stoloniferous at the base, except in No. 10. 



10. P. TRIVIALIS, L. (Rouen MEADOW-GRASS.) Culms (l-3 high) 

 and sheaths usually rather rough ; branches of the pyramidal diffuse panicle mostly 

 in fives ; spikelets 3 - 5-flowered ; flowers acute, prominently 5-nerved, a little hairy 

 on the keel, otherwise glabrous; ligule acute, oblong. Moist meadows; less 

 common and less valuable than the next. July. (Nat. from Eu.) 



