75 



where it often constitutes the chief portion of the herbage under 

 the trees. Stems very slender, one or two feet high, smooth, with 

 a tendency to creep, root, and throw up branches at the lower part, 

 but the plant is scarcely stoloniferous. Leaves long and narrow ; 

 the ligule usually very short and terminating abruptly. Panicle 

 more or less spreading, with slender branches, two to six inches 

 long, drooping or erect. Spikelets ovate-lanceolate, acute, com- 

 pressed, very variable in the number of their flowers, which are 

 generally three or four, rarely two only or five. The web is not 

 unfrequently wanting, and seldom very conspicuous. 



Perennial. Flowers in June and July. 



This is a grass of variable habit, a circumstance which has led 

 to as much multiplication and confusion of species as in P. alpina 

 and its allies. The authors of the ' British Flora ' unite with it 

 the three following, as well as P. montana of Parnell, which 

 scarcely differs from the normal form, unless in its smaller spikelets 

 and webless flowers. 



The Wood Meadow Grass is widely distributed over the northern 

 hemisphere, extending in Europe from the borders of the Medi- 

 terranean to those of the Arctic Ocean, and being likewise a na- 

 tive of northern Asia and the United States of America. Mr. 

 Parnell places it among " the superior permanent pasture Grasses, 

 producing a considerable deal of fine succulent and nutritive 

 herbage, which horses, cows, and sheep are remarkably fond of; " 

 and observes that, though found growing naturally in shady 

 situations and woods, it will grow freely in exposed places. 

 Mr. Sinclair found it, when cultivated, to be invariably attacked 

 by the " rust." As an economical Grass, its value seems doubtful ; 

 in mountainous districts I have never seen it eaten down by sheep, 

 and deer generally leave it untouched in parks. Hares and rabbits 

 devour the herbage, and game-birds are fond of the seeds ; hence it 

 might be worth introduction in preserves where it does not grow 

 spontaneously, which is the case in many parts of southern 

 England. 



PoA Parnellii. Parnell's Meadow Grass. Plate LXI. 



Panicle erect, large, rather close, oblong. Spikelets ovate, two- 

 or three-flowered; flowers acute, free (not webbed at the base). 

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

 Uppermost sheath generally longer . than its leaf. Uppermost 

 knot at about the middle of the stem, exposed. Ligule very 

 short, truncate. 



Poa Parnellii, Babington, Man. Brit. Bot. E. B. Supp. 4. 2916. 

 Parnell, Brit. Grasses, 210. tab. 93. Poa nemoralis, ^, 

 Hooker and Arnott. Bentham. 



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