574 



GRAMINKjE 



awned just btlow the tip. — Meadows ; abundant. A valuable 

 agricultural grass. (Name from the Gr^ek ddhtiilos, a finger, 

 from the hnger-likc clusters of spikelets.) — Fl. June — August. 

 Perennial. 



36. Bri'za ((Quaking- or 'I'otter-grass). — Puinde loo.se, with 

 slender branches ; spikdcts pendulous, short, flat, broad, 3- or 



more - flowered, unawned ; glumes 

 membranous: boat-shaped, blunt, 

 densely and distichously imbricate. 

 (Name from the Greek briilid, I 

 balance, from the delicately sus- 

 pended spikelets.) 



I.* B, uuixima (Greatest Quaking- 

 giass), with , large, oblong, cordale, 

 ij — 17-flowered spikelets, is becoming 

 naturalised in Jersey. 



2. B. media (Common Quaking- 

 or Totter-grdss). — A favourite little 

 plant, a foot or more in height, with 

 a short, truncate ligule to its leaves, 

 and a very loose, spreading paniele 

 of ovate spikelets variegated with 

 green and purple, and containing 

 5-9 //o!t.r;'.t, usually 5 or 6. - Downs 

 and dry pastures ; common. — Fl. 

 Tune, July. Perennial. 



3. B- luvinr (Lesser Quaking- 

 grass). — A smaller and more slender 

 plant with a long, acute ligule to its 

 leaves and more numerous, pale 

 green, triangular spi/;elets containing 

 about 7 -flowp's. — Dry and sandy 

 fields in the' south-west ; rare. — Fl. 

 July, August- Annual. 



37. I'ma (Meadow-grass). — Spike- 

 lets panicled, awnless, compressed, 2- or more-flowered ; glumes 

 rather unequal, generally acute; flowering glume compressed, 

 keeled, 3 — 5-veined, not adherent to the fruit. (Name from the 

 Greek poa, fodder.) 



I, P. dfiiiiia (Annual Meadow-grass). — Tufted, ^ — 10 m. high, 

 with flat, flaccid, bright green glabrous leaves ; paniele erect, loose, 

 spreading, ^\ith a triangular outline, ij — f m. long, somewliat 1- 

 sided, with branches in pairs, becoming detJexed ; spikelets 3 — 6- 





