950 



THE GRASS FAMILY. 



Fig. 1149. 



Spike-like panicle 1| to 2 inches long. 

 Outer glumes very pointed ; the second 

 about 3 lines long, the first seldom above 

 half that length. Flowering glumes 

 usually quite included in them, or rarely 

 the longest awn slightly protrudes. 



In meadows and pastures, throughout 

 Europe and Russian Asia, from the Me- 

 diterranean to the Arctic regions. Abun- 

 dant in Britain, imparting a sweet scent 

 to new-made hay. Fl. spring and early 

 summery and often again in autumn. 



VI. PHALAEIS. PHALAEIS. 



Spikelets 1 -flowered, broad and very flat, densely crowded into an 

 ovoid or cylindrical spike or spike-like panicle as in Phleum, but the 

 glumes have the keel projecting into a scarious wing, and there are 

 usually 1 or 2 minute scales or rudimentary glumes between the outer 

 empty glumes and the flowering one. 



A small genus, chiefly from the Mediterranean region and central 

 Asia. 



1. Canary Phalaris. Phalaris canariensis, Linn. 

 (Fig. 1150.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 1310.) 



An erect, leafy annual, 2 to 3 feet high, with a densely imbricated, 

 ovoid, spike-like panicle, 1 to 1\ inches long, variegated with green 

 and white, and quite glabrous. Outer glumes very flat, 3 to 4 lines 

 long, acute but not awned, white on the edges, with a broad green line 

 down each side. Flowering glume much shorter, narrow and pointed, 

 smooth and shining, hardening round the seed as it ripens. 



