130 TRIAxNDRIA— DIGYNIA. Poa. 



P. n. 1469. Hall. Hist. v. 2. 224. 



Gramen paniculatum angustifolium alpinum, locustis rarioribus et 



angustioribus, non aristatis. Scheuchz. Agr. 164. Prodi: 18. t. 2. 



It. 2. 135. (ed. Lond. 62.) ohs. 45. t. 18./. 3. 

 |S. Poa angustifolia a. Huds. 40. 

 P. pratensis, var. 2. With. 142. Hull 21. 



In groves and woods. 



Most plentiful in the north of England, where it is very common j 

 as also in woods on a chalky soil in the south. 



Perennial. June, July. 



Root fibrous, scarcely creeping. Whole plant very slender and 

 delicate, I i or 2 feet high. Stems several, erect, slightly com- 

 pressed, smooth, striated, leafy, with 4 or 5 joints. Leaves al- 

 most all on the stem, grass-green, narrow, flat, with 3 principal 

 ribs and many intermediate ones j more or less rough, espe- 

 cially the mid-rib and edges ; tapering to a fine slender point ; 

 the lowermost smooth at the back. Sheaths hardly so long as 

 the leaves, compressed, nearly smooth. Stipula very short in 

 all the leaves, and inclosed within the sheath, but visibly notched 

 along the margin. PanJcZe erect, or slightly drooping to one side, 

 very slender, with numerous, half-whorled, angular, rough, wavy, 

 compound branches. Spikelets erect, pale green and white, with 

 a purplish tinge j their general surface shining, and nearly 

 smooth. Cal. of 2 unequal, lanceolate, taper-pointed, almost 

 awned valves, each with 3 ribs ; the keel, or central rib, rough ; 

 the margin of the larger, or innermost, much dilated and mem- 

 branous. Florets 2 or 3, rarely 4. Outer valve of the cor. lan- 

 ceolate, acute, with 5 ribs, of which the 2 marginal ones and 

 the keel are finely silky at their lower part, the 2 intermediate 

 ones smooth, and not very conspicuous, unless the glume be 

 held against the light j inner valve narrow, rough-edged, cloven 

 at the point. The base of each^orei is sometimes, not always, 

 hairy, but there is no complicated web. Stigmas large and tufted. 

 Mr. Sowerby found the nectary of 2 acute cloven scales, 



/S is of a firmer habit, less slender in eveiy part, with a more dense 

 panicle, and sometimes more numerous ^ore^s. An original spe- 

 cimen proves it Mr. Hudson's P. angustifolia, of which he sub- 

 ,jj^ sequently made ?jemoraZis a subordinate variety. But it is not 



angustifolia of Linnaeus, which belongs to pratensis. Neither is 

 it trivialis of Leers, whose considerable web indicates an aflfinity 

 to pratensis also. Morison's sect. 8. t. 5. /. 19, is, more safely 

 perhaps, transferred from the present plant to that species. 



In Switzerland P. nemoralis often bears, on t\\e stems, rigid bristly 

 tufts like radicles, analogous to the mossy balls of the Dog-Rose, 

 and like them probably the effect of the puncture of some insect. 

 See Bocc. Mus. t. 59. Scheuchz. It. 1. 38. t. 5. /. 1. This has 

 not been noticed in Britain. Schrader makes it his var. /3; but 

 it is rather an accident than a variety. 



