79 



garden specimens. Plants of P. casia, which somewhat resemble 

 it in hue, occasionally present themselves on the Snowdon range, 

 but I have certainly never met with the P. glauca, as described by 

 Sir J. E. Smith, in a wild state. The great inequality in the 

 length of the glumes, and their almost abrupt termination, seem 

 to constitute the leading characters of distinction from its nearest 

 allies. Without being at all satisfied with the direct reference of 

 Mr. Bentham, or the questionable one of the authors of the British 

 Flora, to the English Botany figure under this title as a variety of 

 P. nemoralis, I reproduce it in the present work as a guide to 

 future inquirers. 



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

 branches subverticillate. Dorsal vein of the lower palea hairy ; 

 marginal ones smooth. 



PoA TRiviALis. Rough Meadow Grass. Platje LXIV. 



Panicle erect, widely spreading. Spikelets oblong-ovate, two- 

 to four-flowered ; flowers acute, connected by a web. Lower palea 

 five-veined; the middle vein only silky or hairy, the others 

 smooth. Uppermost sheath much longer than its leaf. Ligule 

 oblong, acute. Stem and leaves roughish. 



Poa triviahs, Linncms. E. B. 1072; ed. 2. 129. Generally 

 adopted. 



One of the most common of our meadow and pasture Grasses, 

 especially where the soil is moist and rich. Grows in tufts. The 

 stems, decumbent and rooting at the lower part, give it somewhat 

 the appearance of being stoloniferous ; but though usually de- 

 scribed as creeping, it does not send out any succulent shoots from 

 the base, that, spreading along or beneath the soil, form new plants 

 around the old one. Thus the Rough Meadow Grass ranks among 

 those of its kind distinguished as being fibrous-rooted, an import- 

 ant feature in the eye of the agriculturist. It varies much in 

 height, according to the nature of the land and accompanying 

 herbage, but seldom reaches more than a foot or eighteen inches. 

 Denuded of its leaf-sheaths, the stalk is nearly smooth, unless 

 towards the upper part, below the panicle, where the roughness is 

 readily felt by passing it through the hand from below upwards. 

 The thin flat leaves are likewise rough on both sides, and their 

 sheaths are so externally, the uppermost being always considerably 

 longer than its leaf. Ligule usually very thin, long, and termi- 

 nating in a point. Panicle, in luxuriant specimens, six or eight 

 inches long and three or four broad at the lower part ; the branches 

 very rough, widely spreading in partly unilateral whorls of three or 

 five. Spikelets compressed, ovate, generally about three- or four- 



