120 POA. [class III. ORDtR II. 



green or purplish. Glumelles nearly equal : the outer valve five- 

 ribbed ; tlie margins and point membranous ; the ribs and keel downy, 

 and copiously webbed at the base : the inner valve lanceolate, with 

 two roughish ribs, from which the narrow membranous margin is in- 

 flexed. Stigmas rather long, feathery, branched. Anthers yellow. 



Habitat. — Meadows and pastures; common. /3. In woods, y. 

 Not uncommon in dry barren places, and on walls, especially in alpine 

 countries. 



Perennial ; flowering in June and July. 



This grass, though nearly allied to the following species in its gene- 

 ral appearance, is very difl'erent in its habit and utility as an agri- 

 cultural grass, and ought to be carefully distinguished in making 

 selections of seeds to be sown in difl'erent kinds of land. All plants 

 with creeping underground stems impoverish the land much more 

 than those with simple fibrous roots, and ought not to be chosen if the 

 latter can be substituted for them, that possess other equal advantages. 

 The value of this species is the earliness with which it produces its 

 herbage; but the quantity which it produces — for it puts out flowering 

 stems but once in the season, and is of slow growth — compared with 

 many other grasses, together with its habit, cannot, observes Mr. Sin- 

 clair, justify its claim to a place in the composition of the best natural 

 pastures, and on this account should be carefully avoided as an un- 

 profitable plant for that purpose. 



12. P. trivia'lis, Linn. (Fig. 1.51.) roughish 3feadoiu-g7-ass. Panicle 

 spreading; glumes unequal, pointed, and roughish ; florets about 

 three, five-ribbed, connected by a web at the base; stem and leaves 

 roughish; ligula oblong; root fibrous. 



English Botany, t. 1072. — English Flora, vol. i. p. 124. — Lindley, 

 Svnopsis, p. 317. — Hooker, British Flora, vol. i. p. 46. — Sinclair, Hort. 

 Gram. Woburn. p. 146. 



Root fibrous. Sterns several, bent at the base, erect above, from one 

 to two feet high, roughish, and leafy, frequently purplish. Leaves 

 spreading, flat, linear, lanceolate, roughish, as well as the long, slightly 

 compressed, striated sheaths. Ligula acute, oblong, or lanceolate. 

 Inflorescence an erect, rather large, much branched, spreading panicle ; 

 the branches angular and rough. Glumes unequal, roughish : the 

 outer valve smallest, single ribbed ; the inner with three ribs. Florets 

 mostly three, sometimes purplish. Glumelles roughish : the outer 

 valve acute, five-ribbed, the edges thin and membranous at the extre- 

 mity, the base with ver}' long, convoluted, slender filaments ; the inner 

 valve lanceolate, with two lateral ribs, from which the membranous 

 margins are inflexed. Stigmas featheiy, and branched. Anthers 

 yellow or purple, small. Seed small, angular. 



Habitat. — Meadows and pastures ; common. 



Perennial ; flowering from June to August. 



