74 



all such minor features of comparison as equivocal, unless sup- 

 ported by others less commonly the sport of circumstance. Now, 

 assuming that Poa alpina and its associates rival our native roses 

 and brambles in relative position, it is necessary that the principal 

 alleged differences between them should be examined and their 

 value determined. Of the five Grasses above described, P. bulbosa 

 and P. laxa have the flowers webbed, while in the remainder they 

 are free : the importance of this character is, however, certainly 

 much over-estimated, as in those Grasses generally distinguished 

 by its presence it is not uufrequently absent, and even so in 

 spikelets of the same panicle in which others are furnished with 

 that really striking appendage : see observation under P. minor, 

 p. 70. The veining of the lower palea is liable likewise to vary in 

 flowers belonging to the same spikelet ; the two intermediate 

 ones, where five are noticed in description, being often scarcely 

 traceable, if not absent altogether. Foliage is so much afi'ected by 

 habitat and exposure, that characters drawnfrom it in the separa- 

 tion of the plants of this group cannot be relied upon ; while the 

 "narrow white, cartilaginous, serrated border" of the leaves of 

 P. bulbosa is only a little less conspicuous in the broader ones of 

 P. alpina and others. The ligule, of the upper leaves at least, is 

 long and pointed in all, except P. ccBsia, the true position of 

 which seems a very doubtful point with botanical authors. I 

 place the latter in this section, having always considered it a mere 

 variety of the normal species, a,nd deeming the form of the ligule 

 a feature of questionable value in Grasses generally. 



*** Root fibrous, perennial; not stoloniferous. Lower panicle 

 branches in fives or threes, rarely in pairs. Dorsal and marginal 

 veins of the lower palea hairy or silky. 



This section is only separable from the preceding by the more 

 copious branching of the inflorescence, which is far from being 

 constant, and is only adopted as denoting the limits of the pro- 

 bable varieties of P. nemoralis. 



Poa nemoralis. Wood Meadow Grass. Plate LX. 



Panicle rather drooping, with slender branches. Spikelets ovate- 

 lanceolate, two- to flve-flowered; flowers more or less webbed at 

 the base. Lower palea five-veined, the central and marginal veins 

 silky. Uppermost sheath not longer than its leaf " Uppermost 

 knot at about the middle of the stem, exposed." 'Ligule short, 

 truncate or obtuse. 



Poa nemoralis, Linnaeus. E. B. 1265 ; ed. 2. 134. Generally 

 adgp^d. 



Common in woods and shady places, especially in the North, 



