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Genus 5. PHALAMS. Canary Grass. 



Gen. Char. Inflorescence either compact and spike-like, or loosely 

 panicled. Spikelets laterally compressed, with two equal, 

 carinated glumes enveloping a single perfect flower and one 

 or two rudimentary ones. Flower with two unequal coria- 

 ceous palese. Styles long. Stigmas filiform. Fruit invested 

 by the hardened palese. 



The exotic species of this genus are numerous, and belong gene- 

 rally to warmer climates than our own. Of the two species, enu- 

 merated in the British Flora, one only can be regarded as indi- 

 genous; and they differ so greatly in aspect, that an ordinary 

 observer would scarcely recognize them as near associates, and, at 

 the same time, experience a similar difficulty in detecting the rudi- 

 mentary flowers contained in the spikelets. These flowers are only 

 represented, in most instances, by two small scales or bracts at the 

 base of the palese of the fertile one, as exhibited in the magnified 

 figure b on Plate X. 



The derivation of the generic name, an ancient one, is doubtful, 

 but it has been suggested to have been formed from the Greek 

 phalos, brilliant, in allusion to the glossy seeds of some species. 



Phalaris canariensis. Cultivated Canary Grass. Plate X. 



Inflorescence ovate, compact, spicate. Glumes boat-shaped, the 

 keel extending into a broad, entire wing. Rudimentary flowers 

 two, half as long as the fertile one. Palese hairy, ciliated. 



Phalaris canariensis, Linrusus. E. B. 1310 ; ed. 2. 76. Generally 

 adopted. 



Though long since introduced as a British grass, this species 

 can scarcely be considered as naturahzed, rarely or never being met 

 with two successive seasons in the same habitat, unless where it is 

 cultivated in the neighbourhood. Stems erect, one to two feet 

 high, glaucous. Leaves broad j the sheath of the uppermost one 

 inflated. Spicate inflorescence broadly ovate. Glumes large, pale 

 yellow-green, marked with deeper green lines ; conspicuously winged 

 on the back ; much longer than the spikelet they enclose. Of the 

 enlarged figures, a represents one of the laterally compressed 

 spikelets, with its two dorsally winged, boat-shaped glumes opened 

 to exhibit the single perfect flower ; b shows the palese of this 

 flower expanded, with the two scales below them which are re- 

 garded as abortive flowers ; c is the perfect flower, less magnified 

 and without the latter appendages. 



This grass, first brought from the Canary Islands, is cultivated 



c 2 



