66 



over almost every part of the world. The above character, however, 

 applies strictly to one portion of the group, which some modern 

 botanists have separated into two or more genera. These latter are 

 adopted in the present work, as the divisions, though far from being 

 precise as to their limits on the broad scale, are so far valuable to 

 the home student, that, by directing his attention to a compa- 

 ratively small number of species under each generic type, they 

 relieve the tedium of comparison with many. Actuated by a laud- 

 able desire to simplify as much as possible the classification of the 

 tribe, many of our best practical botanists retain the genus Poa 

 entire ; even while admitting that its division by others is founded 

 upon characters equally important and valuable as those con- 

 stituting the leading differential ones of genera universally 

 admitted. 



Named from the Greek poe, applied to pasture or herbage in 

 common, and well adapted to a genus of Grasses which, throughout 

 Europe especially, forms the basis of most natural meadows. 



The species of Poa proper are generally characterized by their 

 tender succulent stems and foliage, of which most cattle are fond ; 

 hence the more productive kinds usually form a portion of all arti- 

 ficial pastures, though varied according to the quality of the soil and 

 situation, and the experience or caprice of the cultivator. Poa Abys- 

 sinica,a.n annual species, is cultivated for the sake of its seeds, used for 

 making the teff bread of the Abyssinians, the poorer classes among 

 whom rarely eat any other : in preparing it, the dough is leavened 

 by being allowed to turn sour, and is then made into circular cakes 

 for baking. These cakes are white and spongy, and are described 

 as having a hot, disagreeable,' sourish flavour; they are, however, 

 considered very nutritive and easy of digestion : toasted brown, and 

 infused in water, they furnish a liquor called bouza, the common 

 drink of the country. 



Of the thirteen Grasses figured in this work under the genus 

 Poa, several are unquestionably only varieties or hybrids ; but so 

 uncertain at present are our rules for specific distinction among the 

 plants before us, that it is difficult to determine the limits of true 

 species, of which it seems probable that the British Flora does not 

 actually contain more than five or six at the utmost, namely P. annua, 

 P. alpina, P. nemoralis, P. trivialis, P. pratensis, and perhaps, as a 

 naturalized continental intruder on our coasts, P. bulbosa; this 

 latter, however, notwithstanding the peculiarity of its habit and 

 webbed flowers, occupies a very equivocal position apart from P. 

 alpina. 



The arrangement of the quasi species is adopted, with slight 

 verbal alteration, from Mr. Babington's ' Manual of British Bo- 

 tany,' not only with the view of rendering them more readily re- 

 cognizable to the student, but because the several sections appear 



