270 



BRITISH GRASSES. 



faces, rough at the edges ; ligule acute ; sheaths compressed ; 

 panicle widely spreading, erect, triangular, loose ; rachis 

 smooth; branches smooth, spreading, inclining to one side; 

 spikelets stalked, ovate-oblong, or linear, containing from 

 five to nine florets, variegated with green and white and 

 purple ; outer glumes acute, unequal, three-ribbed, the cen- 

 tral rib toothed on the upper part, the summit of the larger 

 glume scarcely reaching the apex of the first floret ; flower- 

 ing glumes five-ribbed, the ribs smooth save for a few silky 

 hairs on the central one ; palea shorter, bordered with a 

 green rib. 



This is perhaps the commonest of all the Poas. Al- 

 though an annual, it scatters its seed so widely that 



plants of it are for ever 

 springing unbidden in every 

 direction ; the new-laid gar- 

 den walks become green un- 

 expectedly with a promising 

 forest of P. annua blades, 

 and the stones of the court- 

 yard soon become fringed 

 in green borders of the same 

 grass. It forms a principal 

 ingredient in lawns and 

 parks, especially about Lon- 

 don, and many a bald place 

 in a much trodden grass-plot is cured by transplanting 

 thither the young Poas that have sprung as weeds in the 

 flower-borders. 



From its great prevalence in Suffolk it is often called 

 Suffolk grass, and, according to Mr. Sole, it is the 

 quickest grower of all grasses " coming up, blooming, 

 and ripening its seeds in the course of one month !" 



