562 GKAMINE^. (grass FAMILY.) 



** ++ Flowers (oblong-lanceolate) and both glumes acute : panicle narrtno. 



5. P. alsodes. Leaves rather nan-owly linear, acute, the uppei-most 

 (2J'-4' long) often sheathing the base of the panicle, the capillary branches of 

 which are appressed when young, and mostly in threes or fours ; spikelets 3- 

 flowered (pale green, soft) ; lower palea very obscurely nerved, villous on the 

 keel below, and with a narrow cobwebby tuft at its base, otherwise glabrous. 

 (P. nemoralis, Torr. Sr ed. 1: but wholly different from the European species of 

 that name.) — Woods, on hill-sides, New England to Wisconsin. May, June. 

 •^ -I- 1- Branches of the rather narrow but loose long-peduncled panicle in threes or 



Jives, or rarely in pairs, short or shortish, above bearing scattered and rather few 

 spikelets; these barely 2" long, pale green, rather hosdy 2 -i-Jlowered: flowers 

 (oblong) and glumes obtuse ; lower palea scarcely scarious-tipped : plant very smooth, 

 slender (1^-3° high) : culm-leaves lance-linear, acute, lJ'-3' hng, soft. 



6. P. debilis, Torr. Culm terete, weak ; branches of the small panicle 

 slender (the lower l^'-2' long to the few spikelets), in pairs and threes ; flowers 

 very obtuse, smooth and glabrous, except a spaiing web at their base. — Bocky 

 woodlands, Rhode Island and N. New York to Wisconsin. May. 



7. P. sylvestris> Culm flattish, erect; branches of the oblong-pyramidal 

 panicle short, in fives or more ; lower palea villous on the keel for its whole length, 

 and on the margins bdow the middle, sparingly webbed at the base. — Rocky woods 

 and meadows, Ohio to Wisconsin, Kentucky, and southward. June. 



1- -^ -<- -1- Branches of the narrow or oblong panicle mostly short, in fives or some- 

 times in twos and threes, rough, mostly compound and bearing very numerous closely- 

 flowered spikelets : flowers acute or acutish, more err less webbed at the base. 



++ Panicle open, its brandies in fives : tjie 3 - 5-fiowered spikelets all distinctly pedicelled, 

 acute, slightly flattened ; lower palea villous or pubescent on the heel and marginal 

 nerves, the intermediate nerves obsolete: culms erect (2° -3° high), terete, growing 

 in tufts, not at all stolonifeious at the base. 



8. P. scr4)tina, Ehrhart. (False Red-top. Fowl Meadow-Gkass.) 

 Leaves narrowly linear ; ligules elongated ; spikelets 2-4- (rarely 5-) flowered (1"- 

 2" long) ; flowers acutish, green, often tinged with dull purple. (P. nemoralis, 

 Pursh. P. crocata, Michx. belongs to this or the next.) — Wet meadows and 

 low banks of streams ; common ■ eveiywhere northward. July, Aug. — A good 

 grass for moist meadows. (Eu.) 



9. P. neinoriiliS, L. Leaves linear; ligules obsolete or very short; spike- 

 lets i - 5-floiuered, rather larger, and the flowers and glumes more sharply acute and 

 narrower ; otherwise nearly as in the preceding, which is too nearly related to 

 it. — Wisconsin (iop^ain), and northward. (Eu.) 



++ -M- Panicle with the flattened spikelets crowded on the branches, mostly short-pedi- 

 cdled, sometimes almost sessile : culms stoloniferovs at the base, except in No. 10. 



10. P. TKiviiLis, L. (Rough Meadow-Gkass.) Culms (l°-3"^ high) 

 and sheaths usually rather rough ; branches of the pyramidal diffuse panicle m_ostly 

 in fives ; spikelets 3 - 5-flowered ; flowers acute, prominently 5-nerved, a little hairj' 

 on the keel, otherwise glabrous ; ligule acute, oblong. — Moist meadows ; less 

 common and less valuable than the next. July. (Nat. from Eu. ) 



