GEAMINE.E. 



1015 



from which they differ chiefly in inflorescence, which is nearer to that 

 of P '/ileum or Phalaris. 



1. Crested Kceleria. Kosleria cristata, Pers. (Fig. 1237.) 

 (Aira, Eng. Bot. t. 648.) 



A perennial, usually about 6 inches 

 high, with a dense tuft of short leaves, 

 chiefly radical ; but in luxuriant speci- 

 mens the stems attain a foot, with leaves 

 almost as long. Spike cylindrical, 1 t 

 2 inches long or even more, the lower 

 clusters more or less distant. Spikelets 

 usually 2- or 3-flowered ; the glumes 1J 

 to 2 lines long, and very pointed ; the 

 outer ones unequal, and scarious on the 

 edge only ; the flowering ones white and 

 scarious, except the green keel, giving 

 the spike a variegated and shining, sil- 

 very-grey aspect. 



In dry pastures, in central and south- 

 ern Europe, extending more sparingly 

 northwards into Scandinavia, in central 

 and Russian Asia, in North America, 

 and New Zealand. Widely distributed 

 over the hilly districts of Britain, and 

 abundant in some parts, but rare, or 

 wholly wanting in others. Fl. summer. 



Fig. 1237. 



XLI. SESIaERIA. SESLEKIA. 



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

 ovoid or cylindrical spike-like panicle, as in Kceleria, but there is 

 usually a glume-like bract on the main axis, at the base of the lower 

 spikelets. Outer glumes nearly equal and pointed, the flowering ones 

 3- or 5-toothed at the top, the central tooth lengthened into a point, or 

 (in exotic species) into a short awn. 



A small genus, chiefly south European and west Asiatic, differing 

 from Poa in the inflorescence, and in most species by the presence of 

 an outer bract under the spikelets, which is analogous to those of the 

 Sedge family. 



