82 



characters universally present in all of its forms ; one of the latter, P. 

 subsccerulea of the ' English Botany,' is figured in Plate LXVI, as 

 indicating the striking difference in general aspect which soil or situ- 

 ation may occasionally produce without alteration of structure. 



Although the differential characters assigned to this grass and P. 

 trivialis are individually, perhaps, of slight value, their constancy ren- 

 ders them important in the aggregate, associated as they are with a 

 form of growth altogether dissimilar. No two species of a genus are 

 more decidedly distinguished. 



Poa prateiisis produces abundant foliage, and at an earlier season than 

 most of our other common meadow and pasture grasses ; hence, being 

 a favourite food of cattle generally, it might be considered one of the 

 most valuable, did not its creeping habit interfere with the growth of 

 others equally luxuriant and better adapted for the promiscuous crop of 

 the hay-field. Its earlier flowering, often about the first week in June, 

 is otherwise disadvantageous, as its seed is ripening at the period when 

 most of its associates are in full blossom, and, if allowed to remain 

 uncut untU this occurs, a loss of more than one-fourth of the crop is 

 sustained. In addition to these objections to its employment under the 

 improved system of agriculture, it may be remarked that all creeping 

 plants tend to impoverish the soil over which they spread ; a fact 

 evinced by their natural habit of sending out their new stems to seek 

 that nutriment at a distance which the older ones have exhausted near 

 at hand. Thus a grass once regarded as being among the most useful 

 of British species, and under this view still dispensed by our unpractical 

 seedsmen, is considered by most experienced cultivators as a weed. 



The flower-stems have been used in this country for manufacturing 

 straw-plait, in imitation of Leghorn, and the imitation is said to be 

 very successful. 



The Smooth Meadow Grass appears to be distributed over the whole 

 northern hemisphere, at least within the temperate zone. 



PoA suBSCiEETJLEA, Grlaucous Mcadow Grass. Plate LXVI. 



A mere alpine or starved variety of P. pratensis. 



Poa subscaerulea, E. B. 1004. P. pratensis, var. E. B. ; ed. 2. 130. 

 generally so considered. P. cserulea, Sinclair. 



The appearance of this grass is so dissimilar to that of P. pratensia, 

 not only in its normal form, but in most of its varieties, that, without 

 close examination, it might readily be mistaken for a distinct species. 

 The inflorescence is more compact ; the spikelets broader and more 

 strictly ovate, and usually three-flowered ; the leaves proportionately 

 broad and short, somewhat folded and compressed at the upper part, 

 or rather incurved and rounded at the back, of a more or less glaucous 

 hue, often tinged with purple. Setting aside these peculiarities, which 

 are altogether independent of structure, the identity of species is 

 beyond question. The present is not an exclusively alpine plant, 

 though common in the mountainous districts of "Wales, and the north 



