1014 



TEIE GRASS FAMILY. 



XXXIX. TRIODIA. TRIODIA. 



Spikelets awnless, rather large, and few in a panicle, contracted al- 

 most into a simple raceme, and few-flowered. Outer glumes pointed, 

 as long as the flowering ones or longer ; flowering glumes with 3 very 

 minute teeth at the top. 



A small genus, chiefly Australian, differing from Oat and its allies 

 chiefly in the absence of any awn, from Fescue in the outer glumes 

 usually exceeding the flowering ones. 



1. Decumbent Triodia. Triodia decumbens, Beauv. 

 (Fig. 1236.) 



(Poa, Eng. Bot. t. 792.) 



A tufted perennial, 6 inches to a foot 

 high. Leaves narrow, with a few long 

 soft hairs on their sheaths and edges, 

 and a tuft of hairs in the place of their 

 ligula. Spikelets seldom more than 5 

 or 6, erect, containing 3 or 4 flowers. 

 Outer glumes of a firm consistence, but 

 nearly scarious towards the edges, 4 or 

 5 lines long, concave but keeled, very 

 pointed and glabrous ; flowering glumes 

 deeply concave, ending in 3 minute 

 teeth, the central one more pointed, but 

 all 3 often scarcely prominent. 



On dry heaths, and hilly pastures, in 

 central and northern Europe and western 

 Asia, extending from northern Spain 

 and Italy far into Scandinavia, but not 

 an Arctic plant. In Britain, generally 

 distributed and rather common. FL summer. 



XL. KCGLERIA. KCELERIA. 



Spikelets few-flowered, in nearly sessile clusters, crowded into an 

 oblong or nearly cylindrical spike-like panicle; the glumes keeled, 

 scarious on the edges, pointed, or, in some exotic species, awned. 



A small genus, chiefly European and Asiatic, with a few species 

 from the southern hemisphere, all closely allied to Poa and Fescue, 



