MEADOWS AND PASTURES 23 
awnless. Perennial, flowering early July to Autumn. Var. 4, 
nigra has erect, taller stems, and is more robust: sheaths and 
panicle rough, and the truncate ligule rather long. 
Phleum pratense, the Common Catstail or Timothy-grass (fig. 18). 
is common in England, but less so in Scotland and Ireland. Root- 
stock tufted ; var. stolonzferum with numerous stolons. Leaves 
flat, tapering above, with low, flat, uneven ribs and rough margins, 
greyish-green ; ligule truncate, toothed. Culms 14 feet. Panicle 
spikelike, cylindric and dense, 3-6 inches long. Spikelets } inch 
long, compressed, 1-flowered ; empty glumes truncate, with a rigid 
scabrous terminal awn not quite half their length, the keel ciliated 
with long, stiff hairs; flowering 
glume hyaline, 3-nerved, toothed 
at the apex, awnless. In dry 
pastures the panicle is frequently 
not more than an inch long, and 
the base of the stem swollen 
(var. P. nodosum). Perennial, 
flowering mid-July, August. 
Hordeum pratense, the Meadow 
Barley, is frequent in damp mea- 
dows in England, especially near 
the coast ; very rare in Scotland, 
and local in Ireland. Rootstock 
rather loosely tufted. Leaves 
narrowly linear-lanceolate and 
finely tapering, with scabrid ribs, 
hairy, dull green ; ligule, truncate 
and very short. Culms 11-2 feet. 
Spike 2-23 inches long, com- 
pressed, yellowish-green, at once 
recognised by its similarity to the 
spike of the cultivated barley. 
Spikelets inserted three in each 
notch of the rachis, $ inch long 
(exclusive of the awns),1-flowered; re a phy ae . 
the lateral spikelets of each triad spikelike panicle : et oie izes 
staminate, the central one bi- cspikelet enlarged. 
sexual ; empty glumes all bristle- 
like and scabrid, not ciliated, prolonged into an awn twice their 
length; flowering glumes narrow, rounded on the back, and 
obscurely 3-nerved, tapering into an awn not quite their length. 
All the awns are scabrid. Perennial, flowering middle of July, 
August. : 
Bromus vacemosus, the Smooth Brome, is not unfrequent 
throughout Britain, but is liable to be confounded with its near ally, 
B. mollis. Culms 2-3 feet. Leaves firm and thinly hairy, deep- 
green. Panicle long and narrow, erect, the branches reduced to 
short pedicels, and rarely bearing more than one spikelet. Spike- 
lets about $ inch long, smooth or slightly scabrid, glossy, with an 
