﻿18 GRASSES OF SCOTLAND. 



Description. — It grows from eighteen inches to two feet high. The 

 root is perennial, somewhat creeping, occasionally bulbous. Stem 

 erect, round and smooth, bearing four or five leaves with nearly 

 smooth sheaths ; the upper sheath longer than its leaf, crowned with 

 an oblong, membranous ligule. Joints smooth. Leaves flat, broad- 

 ish, acute, roughish on both surfaces as w r ell as on the margins. In- 

 florescence simple panicled. Panicle erect, close, of a cylindrical form, 

 from two to five inches long, variegated with green and white. Spike- 

 lets small and numerous, compressed, (Fig. 3), arranged in pairs on 

 very short footstalks around the rachis ; of one slightly awned floret, 

 much shorter than the calyx. Calyx of two glumes of equal lengths, 

 (Fig. 1), with a broad, obtuse, membranous margin; the keels fringed 

 with short stout white hairs; each glume terminating in a stout, 

 rough awn not half the length of the glume. Floret of two membra- 

 nous palese (Fig 2), the outer palea ovate, five-ribbed ; jagged at the 

 summit, hairy on the keel, terminating in a minute awn. Inner palea 

 shorter than the outer palea, membranous, with the margins delicate- 

 ly fringed. 



Obs. — Phleum pratense is distinguished from Phleum alpinum in the 

 panicle being much longer and the glumes more than twice the length 

 of their awns ; — whereas in P. alpinum the panicle never exceeds an 

 inch in length, and the glumes are not more than one-third longer than 

 their awns. It is stated by several authors that the glumes of P. alpinum 

 are equal in length to their awns, but in all those that I have examin- 

 ed the glumes are one-third longer than their awns. As this is one of 

 the most important characters by which these two grasses are distin- 

 guished, it renders the greatest accuracy the more essential. 



From Phleum arenarium in the glumes being obtuse and awned, 

 and the floret more than half the length of the calyx ; — whereas in P. 

 arenarium the glumes are acute, not awned, and the floret is not 

 more than one- third the length of the calyx. (Plate VIL) 



From Phleum Michelii in the spikelets being much smaller ; the 

 glumes obtuse and awned, and the floret tipped with a minute awn ; — 

 whereas in P. Michelii the spikelets are large ; the glumes acute but not 

 awned ; and the floret entire at the summit. (Plate VIL) 



It is stated that this grass was first recommended for agricultural 

 use about eighty years ago under the name of Timothy-grass, — an ap- 



