248 



Fig. 544. Poa compressa Linn. Sp. PI. 69. Canada Blue- 

 grass. — A slender but rather rigid and somewhat wiry peren- 

 nial, with strongly flattened stems 1.5 to 5 dm. high, and usually 

 small, narrow, few-flowered panicles. Spikelets (a) 3- to 5- (rarely 

 7- to 9-) flowered, 4 to 6mm. long, with acute 3-nerved empty glumes 

 and rather firm, obscurely nerved flowering glumes 2 to 3 mm. 

 long, sparingly pubescent toward the base. — Dry meadows and 

 waste places, Newfoundland to South Carolina, Tennessee and 

 westward. [Europe.] May-September. 



