33 



PHLEUM BOEHMEKL 



ScHEADEE. ZocH. Smith. Kttnth. Hookee; Lindlet. Withebik g. 

 Babington. Paenell. 



PLATE X. A. 



Fhalaris phleoides, Linn^us. Willdenow. Smith. 



" " Oedbe. Host. Ehehaet. 



SiNCLAIE. 



Chilochoa Boehmeri, Beatjvois. 



The Purple-stalked Cafs-tail Grass. 



Phleum — Beed Mace, Boehmeri — After Boelimer, 



A RARE British Grass, of no agricultural usej almost confined 

 to chalky or dry, sandy fields in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk, 

 in the latter county near Narburgh. It has not been discovered 

 either in Scotland or Ireland. . 



On the continent it is included in the flora of Russia, Swit- 

 zerland, Italy, France, Germany, Norway, and Sweden. 



Root fibrous and perennial. Stem upright, smooth, simple, 

 slender, striated; upper portion purple and shining, having four 

 or five leaves, with smooth rather tumid striated sheaths, the 

 uppermost one much longer than its leaf, and having a broad 

 obtuse ligule, which entirely encloses the stem, mostly four- 

 jointed, the joints being all below the centre. Leaves rough on 

 both sides and along the edges, flat, linear-lanceolate in form, 

 except those near the base, which are narrower. Inflorescence 

 compact, dense, panicled, cylindrical. Spikelets diminutive, very 

 numerous, situated all round the panicle, consisting of two equal- ' 

 sized glumes and one floret; glumes linear, the edges being 

 white and membranous; apex oblique; floret awnless, and only 



