67 



to me, with all due deference to my learned compeers, to mark the 

 confines of those which may be regarded as true ones. 



* Root fibrous, annual ; not stoloniferous. Panicle branches solitary 



or in pairs. 



PoA ANNUA. Annual Meadow Grass. Plate LV, 



Panicle erect, widely spreading, with a triangular outline. Spike- 

 lets oblong-ovate, five- or six-flowered ; flowers rather distant, free 

 (not connected by a web). Lower palea with five veins, all more 

 or less silky. Stems compressed. Upper leaf much shorter than 

 its sheath ; ligule oblong, acute. 



Poa annua, imn«MS. ^.5. 1141 ; ed. 2. 131. Generally adopted. 



The most common and universally distributed of all our Grasses, 

 growing in all soils and situations throughout the kingdom. Stems 

 varying from an inch to eight or ten inches in height, generally 

 more or less prostrate at the lower part, and throwing roots from 

 those joints which lie in contact with the soil. Leaves flat, rather 

 obtuse, broad, flaccid, often wavy, very bright green ; the upper- 

 most always short, with a very long sheath, usually inflated towards 

 the upper part. Inflorescence very loosely spreading, an inch and 

 a half to three inches long ; the branches slender, gradually short- 

 ening upwards so as to render the panicle triangular. Spikelets 

 pointing to one side, three- to six-flowered, rarely more. Glumes 

 unequal, obtuse, ovate-lanceolate, three-veined. Lower palea ovate- 

 lanceolate, rather acute, diaphanous at the margins, five-veined ; 

 the veins minutely silky. The magnified figure a shows the many- 

 flowered spikelet ; b, a single flower with its dissimilar palese and the 

 diaphanous margin of the outer one. 



Annual ; springing up, flowering, and ripening its seeds through- 

 out the year, unless during the prevalence of frost. 



Although named and described annual, and although, as observed 

 by Mr. Bentham, " it will often germinate, flower, ripen, and shed 

 its seeds and die away in the course of a few weeks," this grass in 

 certain situations assumes somewhat the character of a perennial, 

 in consequence of Ihe lateral rooting of its partially-decumbent 

 stems, the bases of which remain and form new tufts around the 

 old one ; this modification of its general habit may be observed on 

 well-kept lawns, frequently mown and rolled, or on the borders of 

 footpaths where it is hable to be trodden upon from time to time; 

 but in no instances do we see any tendency to the extension of 

 creeping branches or stolones from the bases of the stems. 



Poa annua is not a grass of much agricultural importance, as, 

 although greatly relished by cattle and among the most nutritious 



K 2 



