574 



GRAM1NE/E 



awned just below the tip. — Meadows; abundant. A valuable 

 agricultural grass. (Name from the Greek ddktulos, a finger, 

 from the finger-like clusters of spikelets.) — Fl. June — August. 

 Perennial. 



36. Briza (Quaking- or 

 slender branches ; spikelets 



Totter-grass). — Panicle loose, with 

 pendulous, short, flat, broad, 3- or 

 more - flowered, unawned ; glumes 

 membranous, boat-shaped, blunt, 

 densely and distichously imbricate. 

 (Name from the Greek brithd, I 

 balance, from the delicately sus- 

 pended spikelets.) 



1.* B. maxima (Greatest Quaking- 

 grass), with large, oblong, cordate, 

 9 — 17-flowered spikelets, is becoming 

 naturalised in Jersey. 



2. B. media (Common Quaking- 

 or Totter-grass). — A favourite little 

 plant, a foot or more in height, with 

 a short, truncate ligule to its leaves, 

 and a very loose, spreading panicle 

 of ovate spikelets variegated with 

 green and purple, and containing 

 5 — 9 flowers, usually 5 or 6. — Downs 

 and dry pastures ; common. — Fl. 

 June, July. Perennial. 



3. B. minor (Lesser Quaking- 

 grass). — A smaller and more slender 

 plant with a long, acute ligule to its 

 leaves and more numerous, pale 

 green, triangular spikelets containing 

 about 7 flowers. — Dry and sandy 

 fields in the south-west; rare. — Fl. 

 July, August. Annual. 



37. Poa (Meadow-grass). — Spike- 

 lets panicled, awnless, compressed, 2- or more-flowered ; glumes 

 rather unequal, generally acute; flowering glume compressed, 

 keeled, 3 — 5-veined, not adherent to the fruit. (Name from the 

 Greek poa, fodder.) 



1. P. annua (Annual Meadow-grass). — Tufted, 2 — 10 in. high, 

 with flat, flaccid, bright green glabrous leaves ; panicle erect, loose, 

 spreading, with a triangular outline, \\ — 3 in. long, somewhat 1- 

 sided, with branches in pairs, becoming de-flexed ; spikelets 3 — 6- 



br/za m£dia 

 {Common Quakmg-grass). 



