264 



BRITISH GRASSES. 



It flowers in July and ripens its seed in August. 



This Poa is not remarkable for beauty, and we are 



not aware of it having any 

 agricultural value or of any 

 especial interest attaching 

 to it. 



P. maritima, var. hispida, 

 has a compressed stem, a 

 furrow along one side of 

 the rachis, and its branches 

 rough with small bristles. 



Mr. Babington gathered 

 this grass in Suffolk, and 

 identified it with the Scle- 

 rochloa of Fries. He calls 

 it the " Hough Sea Meadow- 

 grass." 



4. Poa distans, Linn. Refiexed Poa. 



Boot perennial, fibrous ; stems scaly, decumbent at the 

 base, striated, smooth, about a foot high, numerous, slender ; 

 .eaves flat, glaucous, acute, seldom folded ; sheaths long ; 

 jgule blunt, emarginate; panicle branched, spreading, erect ; 

 the branches slender, rough, placed at certain distances on 

 the rachis in pairs or threes, of various length, the lower 

 ones bending downwards more and more decidedly as they 

 increase in age ; spikelets small, containing five florets, the 

 summit of the lowest floret extending considerably beyond 

 the outer glume ; outer glumes three-ribbed, small ; flower- 

 ing glumes five-ribbed, larger, the central rib not reaching 

 the summit ; palea small. 



The Reflexed Poa resembles the last species in general 



