34 BRITISH SPECIES 
buted. Rootstock with slender stolons. Leaves slender, flat, 
linear-lanceolate, light green ; ligule almost obsolete, but on the 
opposite side of the mouth of the entire sheath is a subulate lobe 
peculiar to this grass alone. Culms about 13 ft. Panicle witha 
few long slender branches in pairs. Spikelets about ¢ inch long, 
oval, erect, purplish-brown or maroon-red, containing one flower 
and a terminal club-shaped body formed of several colourless 
rudimentary glumes ; glumes rounded on the back and awnless, 
the empty ones as long asthe flowering one, the latter 5-nerved and 
pale greenish-yellow. Perennial, flowering latter part of May, June. 
Poa nemoralis, the Wood Meadow-grass, is not unfrequent in 
woods and copses, and curiously enough, this delicate-looking 
species is also found on the summits of our highest mountains, 
where it varies a good deal from the lowland form. Rather com- 
mon, and generally distributed in England, more rare in Scotland 
and Ireland. Rootstock very shortly creeping. Leaves very 
narrow, tapering from the base finely, dark green ; sheaths smooth, 
ligule hardly apparent. Culms about 2 ft., and so frail that they 
break if not carefully handled. Panicle pyramidal, slightly droop- 
ing, the branches 3-4 at the lower insertions. Spikelets 4 inch 
long, narrowly ovate, pale green, 2- to 4-flowered; glumes com- 
pressed, keeled, without awn or mucro, the flowering ones webbed 
and obscurely 5-nerved. Perennial, flowering middle of July. 
Agropyrum caninum, the Fibrous or Wood Couch, is rather 
thinly but widely distributed throughout Great Britain ; scarce in 
Ireland. Rootstock not at all creeping, and without stolons. 
Leaves flat, linear-lanceolate, hairy above with faint ribs, auricled, 
flaccid, and bright green. Culms very slender, 2-3 ft. Spike 
slender ; spikelets 4 inch long, broadside to the rachis, one in each 
notch and usually 4-flowered ; flowering glumes with a slender 
wavy awn their own length. Perennial, flowering latter part of 
July. : 
Calamagrostis epigetos, the Wood Small-reed, is not unfrequent 
in the south of England, becoming scarce northwards ; very rare 
in Ireland. It is partial to shade and damp soil, or places that 
are occasionally inundated; but we have found it on the dry 
ballast hills of the Tyne. Rootstock creeping with long stolons. 
Leaves very long, stiff, and ultimately involute with very scabrid 
margins, rather glaucous ; ligule very long. Culms 2-4 ft. Panicle 
dense and plumy, lobed, dull purplish-brown. Spikelets numerous, 
t inch long, 1-flowered ; the flowering glume is enveloped in silky 
hairs, and has a dorsal awn inserted about midway along the keel 
and extending a little beyond its apex ; empty glumes and silky 
hairs twice the length of the flowering glume. Perennial, flowering 
early August. 
Melica nutans, the Nodding Melic, is found on shady banks and 
rocky places in the mountainous woods of Western England and of 
Scotland. Rootstock and leaves as in AZ. wuzflora, but the mouth 
of the sheath is without a lobe. Culms a foot high. The spike- 
lets, about half a score in number, are disposed in a drooping 
