Poa.] GEAJvnNE.E. 597 



B. Florets webbed. 



2. P. pratensis, L. Smooth-stalked Meadoiv-grass. " Panicle 

 diffuse, spikelets oblong-ovate of about 4 florets which are acute 

 5 -nerved webbed, marginal nerves and keel of the outer glumella 

 silky, culm and sheath smooth, upper sheath much longer than 

 its leaf, ligule short, root creeping." — Br. Fl. p. 537. E. B. t. 

 1073. 



;3. Slender ; leaves long, very narrow ; panicle lax ; spikelets smaller and nar- 

 rower. Var. II. anguslifolia. Gaud. Fl. Helvet. ii. p. 269. P. angustifolia, 

 lAn. ? 



y. Leaves rigid, subglaucous. Var. III. slrigosa. Gaud. Fl. Helvet. ii. p. 260. 

 P. subca'rulea, Sm. p 



An abundant species ill meadows and pastures. FL "June, July." — Br. Fl. 



n- 



p. Freijuent in woods and shady places, and apt, I think, to be taken for P. 

 nemoralis. 



y. On wall-tops and other dry barren places. About Cowes, Thorley, Yar- 

 mouth, &c. 



In y. the leaves are shorter than the stem, rigid and subglaucous ; the panicle 

 small and compact ; and the calyx very acute, with mostly three copiously webbed 

 florets. A soinewhat similar but very dwarf form of P. pratensis abounds on dry 

 sand by the sea at Ryde, &c., with short, flat, rigid leaves, and a short, triangu- 

 lar, spreading panicle. The former of the two has, I conceive, been repeatedly 

 taken for P. compressa, as was indeed done by myself; the latter runs a chance of 

 being confounded with P. bulbosa by those unacquainted with the true plant of 

 that name. 



3. P. trivialis, L. Bough- stalked Meadow-grass. "Panicle 

 diffuse, spikelets oblong- ovate of about 3 florets which are acute 

 5 -nerved connected by a web, outer glumella silky only on the 

 midrib, sheath much longer than its leaf, culms and sheaths 

 roughish, ligule oblong acute, root fibrous." — Br. Fl. p. 538. E. 

 B. t. 1072. Host. Gram. Aust. ii. 45, t. 03. 



In meadows, pastures and moist shady places; common. Z^. June, July. 3^. 

 In a bundle of this species pulled in a cornfield near Ryde the glumes were 

 invariably 2-floweied, as Smith remarks is occasionally the case. 



4. P. bulbosa, L. Bulbous Meadow-grass. " Panicle close sub- 

 spicate, spikelets ovate 3 — 4 flowered, florets silky at the keel and 

 marginal nerves connected by a web, leaves with a white narrow 

 serrated cartilaginous margin, upper sheath much longer than its 

 leaf, ligule prominent acute, stems swollen at the very base." — 

 Br. Fl. p. 538. E. B. t. 1071. 



Fl. April, May. 4. 



E. Med. — On the sandy pasture-ground of the spit at St. Helens, Dr. Bell- 

 Saiier, 1850!!! 



Grass glabrous. Root somewhat creeping, emitting small, ovoid, bulb-like off- 

 sets, with a tuft of slender fibres at their base, being the enlarged and fleshy bases 

 of the leaves concentrically wrapped together. Culms erect, from about 4 to 8 or 

 9 inches high, extremely slender, terete, perfectly smooth, glabrous and polished, 

 naked at top, mostly purplish, as are the long, close, striated sheaths; usually ge- 

 niculate near the base. Leaves of the stem very few and small, the uppermost 

 very distant, often extremely minute; those of the root and of the bulbous offsets 



