120 TRIANDRIA— DIGYNIA. Poa. 



Gramen exile duriusculum, in muiis et aridis proveniens. Rail 



Syn. 410. 

 G. panicula multiplici majus. Bauh. Prodr. &.f, bad. Theatr. 31. 



f.32, bad. Scheuchz. Agr. 271.t.6.f.2. 

 G. minus duriusculum. Ger. Em. 4.f, bad. 

 G. loliaceum murorum duriusculum, spica erecta rigida. Moris, 



V.3. 182. sect. 8. t.2.f.<). 

 G. filiceum rigidiusculum. Vaill. Par. 92. t. 18./. 4. 



On walls and dry gravelly banks, not uncommon. 



Annual. June. 



Root fibrous, woolly. Stems several, 3 — 5 inches high, peculiarly 

 rigid and wirj', as is also the, not inelegant, panicle. Leaves 

 short, narrow and pointed; rough on the upper side. Sheaths 

 ribbed, smooth. Stipula elongated, blunt and mostly torn. 

 Florets cylindrical, minutely pointed, furnished with a slight keel 



. near the summit, but rarely with any traces of ribs. Calyx acute, 

 strongly keeled. Aiith. short, prominent. Styles scarcely any. 

 Stigmas large, tufted. 



The whole plant generally assumes a brown or purplish hue, re^ 

 maining bleached and dry after Midsummer. Professor Schrader 

 speaks of it as very rare in Germany, nor does Haller mention 

 this species at all. Ehrhart published a most unnatural culti- 

 vated dried specimen, at no. 2 of a collection, whose title I know 

 not, and which was never perhaps continued. 



45. POA. Meadow-grass. 

 Linn. Gen. 34. Juss. 32. Fl.Br.95. Lam. t. 45. 



Cal. of 2 unequal, awnless, acute, ovate, folded, keeled valves, 

 containing an ovate, imbricated spikelet, of several awn- 

 less, alternate, 2-ranked, perfect Jlorets, often connected 

 at their base by a condensed web, of long, white, cottony, 

 filaments. Cor. of 2 unequal valves; the outer ovate, 

 acute, strongly keeled, compressed, sometimes ribbed, en- 

 tire, more or less membranous at the summit, as well as 

 at the edges, which are flat, not inflexed ; inner narrower, 

 with 2 nearly marginal ribs, the edges membranous, in- 

 flexed, the sununit cloven. Nect. a deeply-cloven scale. 

 Filam. capillary, longer than the corolla. Anth. pendu- 

 lous, oblong, cloven at each end. Germen ovate. Sti/les 

 very short. Stigmas spreading, feathery, in several species 

 repeatedly branched. Seed elliptic-oblong, acute, some- 

 what angular, loose, covered with the unchanged corolla, 

 and sometimes woolly at the base with the permanent 

 web above described. 



lioot either fibrous or creeping, in most instances perennial. 



