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549 THE GRASS FAMILY. oe 
but there are no creeping scions; the stems are usually taller and 
more slender ; the ligula of the leaf longer; the panicle more slender, 
often 6 inches long, with slender, spreading branches; the spikelets 
have seldom more than 3 flowers, and usually only 2. Flowering glumes 
as in P. pratensis, except that the lateral nerves are much more con- 
spicuous. 
In meadows and pastures, with the same geographical range as P. pra- 
tensis, and at least as common. Abundant also in Britain. Fl. swmmer, 
commencing early. 
12. P. nemoralis, Linn. (fig. 1247). Wood P.—A perennial, 1 to 2 
feet high, tufted, or slightly creeping at the base, erect, but weaker and 
more slender than the last two species, with narrower leaves, their ligules 
very short. Panicle contracted or spreading, with slender branches. 
Spikelets compressed, lanceolate or ovate, with 2 to 5 flowers in each, 
and scarcely any woolly hairs on the axis. Flowering glumes rather 
more than a line long, lanceolate, more pointed than in the last two 
species, with a line of small silky hairs on each side and another on the 
keel. [P. Parnellu, Bab., P. Balfowrit, Parn., and P. glauca, Sm., are 
mountain forms. ] 
In woods and shady places, and on moist mountain rocks, throughout 
Europe and Russian Asia from the Mediterranean to the Arctic regions. 
Frequent in Britain. Fl. summer. A mountain variety, P. cesia, Sm., 
has the stems usually shorter, the panicle less branched, and the spike- 
lets rather longer, but it passes gradually into the common form. 
13. P. laxa, Henke (fig. 1248). Wavy P.—A tufted or slightly 
creeping perennial, seldom a foot high, near P. alpina, but more slender, 
with narrower and more numerous leaves. Panicle loose, with few 
spreading branches. Spikelets rather larger than in P. alpina, from 1 to — 
3 on each branch of the panicle, ovate, each with 3 or 4 flowers. Glumes 
about 2 lines long, more pointed than in most Poas. P. minor, Gaud. 
Confined to high northern latitudes, or to great elevations in the 
mountains of Europe, Asia, and North America. In Britain, only on © 
Ben Nevis and Lochnagar, in Scotland, where it is usually in a vivi- 
parous state, and then not easily distinguished from P. alpina. I myself 
have seen no Scotch specimens that I could refer with certainty to P. 
laxa. [P. laxa includes two forms or species: one, P. laxa, Henke 
(minor, Gaud.), with channelled leaves, concave at the tip, and the 
panicle open in flower, and closed in fruit; the other, P. stricta, Lindb., 
with leaves flat to the tip, and the panicle open in flower, and spreading 
in fruit.] 
14. P. alpina, Linn. (fig. 1249). Alpine P.—Stems tufted, often 
swollen at the base, but not so much so as in P. bulbosa, 6 inches to a 
. foot high. Leaves short, rather broad, mostly radical or nearly so, and 
when perfect have a short inflected point. Panicle ovoid, about 2 inches 
long, rather spreading, with short but slender branches. Spikelets 
crowded, ovate, 3- to 5-flowered. Flowering glumes pointed and keeled ; 
the lateral nerves not prominent, with a few minute silky hairs on the 
keel and edges, but with little or no wool at their base on the axis of 
the spikelet. 
In alpine pastures, common in all the great mountain-ranges of Europe 
and central and Russian Asia, and at high latitudes in North America. 
On the higher mountains of Scotland, northern England, very rarely 
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