630 GRAMINE^E. (GRASS FAMILY.) 



7. P. pratdnsis, L. (GREEN or COMMON MEADOW-GRASS. KENTUCKY 

 BLUE-GRASS.) Culms sending off copious running rootstocks from the base, and 

 the sheaths smooth ,- ligule short and blunt ; panicle short-pyramidal ; spikelets 3-5- 

 flowered, crowded, and most of them almost sessile on the branches, ovate-lanceo- 

 late or ovate ; lower palet 5-nerved, hairy along the margins as well as the keel. 

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

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



8. P. TRIVIALIS. L. (RouGHiSH MEADOW-GRASS.) Culms erect from a 

 somewhat decumbent base, but no distinct running rootstocks ; sheaths and leaves 

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

 distant ; spikelets mostly 3-flowered, broader upwards ;" lower palet prominently 

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

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



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



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

 *+ Spikelets small (l"-2" long), pale green, rather loosely 2 -4-flowered: flowers 



oblong, obtuse : lower palet scarcely scarious-tipped : culm-leaves lance-linear, acute, 



l'-3' long. 



9. P. sylv6stris, Gray. Culmflattish, erect ; branches of the oblong-pyram- 

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

 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. d6bilis, Torr. Culms terete, weak ; branches of the small panicle 

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

 flowers very obtuse, smooth and glabrous, except a sparing web at their base. 

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



*-* -w- 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. nemoralis, Torr. $* 

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

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



w- HH. -M. Spikelets larger (3" -4" long), pale green, rarely purple-tinged, few 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 Muse, as is 

 the larger glume : lower palet conspicuously scarious at the apex, villous below the 

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



12. P. flexudsa, Muhl. (not of Wahl.) Culms l-3 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 prominently nerved, no web at the base. (P. autumnalis, Muhl. in Ell. P. 

 ca~mpyle, Schult.) Dry woods, Virginia, Kentucky, and southward. Feb. - 

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



