depending upon the shape of the flower-spike and the comparative 

 length of the glume-awn or bristle, is not so decisive of the difference 

 between this and the smaller varieties otP.pratense as might be de- 

 sirable, though its distinction as a species cannot be doubted. Short- 

 spiked specimens of the latter species, however, do not present the 

 broad oval outline distinguishing the inflorescence of the present, 

 which is generally of a much darker colour and with a purplish 

 tinge. It has the same tendency to creep and root at the base as 

 its congener, and the flower-stems vary from six inches to a foot 

 high. 



Perennial. Flowers in July. 



Mr. Babington remarks that our plant is the P. commutatum, 

 and differs from the true P. alpinum by its shorter panicle (inflo- 

 rescence), not ciliate awn, much inflated upper leaf-sheath, and 

 short blunt ligule.^^ 



P. alpinum is said to constitute the principal part of the turf in 

 the most elevated pastures of Switzerland. 



Phleum asperum. Rough Cat's-tail Grass. Plate XV. 



Inflorescence spicate, cylindrical. Glumes wedge-shaped, trun- 

 cate, swelling upwards, mucronate ; rough on the keel. 



Phleum asperum, Jacquin. E. B. ed. 3. 81. P. paniculatum of 

 some of the older botanists. E. B. 1077. Chilochloa aspera, 

 Romer and Schultes. 



Local rather than rare in England, where it grows in dry, open, 

 and generally elevated meadows and pastures ; as on the Gogmagog 

 hills and in other parts of Cambridgeshire, and in meadows below 

 King's Weston, near Bristol. Stems erect, eight inches to a foot 

 in height, often branched; leafy almost to the inflorescence, which 

 is sometimes nearly enveloped by the sheath of the upper leaf. 

 Leaf-sheaths rough. Ligule blunt. Inflorescence two to four 

 inches long, bending to one side, about the thickness of a goose- 

 quill, but usually narrowing upwards. The form of the glumes is 

 peculiar, widening upwards from a narrow base, and terminating 

 abruptly, but with a short point or mucro at the broad apex : they 

 are but slightly keeled on the back, the keel being rough, but not 

 ciliated. The structure of the flowers is exemplified by the mag- 

 nified figures : a, the two glumes ; b, the single perfect flower, 

 with its two awnless palese; c, the pistil. The second, rudi- 

 mentary, flower, mentioned in our notice of the genus, is present 

 in this species. 



Annual. Flowers in July. 



It seems indigenous to the upland districts of southern Europe. 



d2 



