TWO NEW GRASSES. 33 



the lower parts of the cliffs are seldom disturbed by botanists 

 in the spring. The grass, as I saw it, is only 1-4 inch in 

 height, and its small purplish panicle among the thick growth 

 of the surrounding plants might well be overlooked, especially 

 as the small purplish spike of Mibora verna is by no means 

 uncommon in the same locality. 



Phalabjs minor, Retz. Obs. Bot. iii. 8 (1783). 



Syn. P. aquatica, W. Sp. i. 236 (1797) et auct. plur. (non L.) 

 P. bulbosa, Desf. Fl. Atl. i. 35 (1798). 

 P. decumbens, Moench, Meth. 208 (1794). 



Annual. Root fibrous. Stems several, often branched 

 near the base, erect or ascending, 1-2 feet in height, furrowed 

 but smooth. Leaves flat, acuminate, about J inch broad at 

 the base, strongly veined, glabrous, rough on the edges. 

 Uppermost sheath inflated, longer than its leaf. Ligule long, 

 obtuse, clasping the stem. Panicle spike-like, ovoid or 

 cylindric-oblong, 1-1 J inch long. Spikelets much compressed 

 laterally. Two outer glumes \ inch long, membranous, 

 sharply acuminate, with a prominent green nerve on either 

 side of the green keel ; the upper half of the keel furnished 

 with a scarious wing, of which the margin is dentate or erose 

 towards the top. Fertile glume §- inch in length, laterally 

 compressed so that the margins meet and completely enfold 

 the palea, pale green, glabrous on the keel and on a small 

 swollen portion at the base of either side, the rest covered 

 with appressed silky hairs ; at its base, opposite its margins, 

 is a narrow acute hairy rudimentary glume, one-fourth as 

 long as the fertile glume ; the corresponding barren glume at 

 the base of the keel of the fertile glume is reduced to a 

 microscopic scale. Palea like the fertile glume, but much 

 smaller, ciliate on the keel, but otherwise glabrous. Fruit 

 compressed acuminate. 



Distribution, according to Nyman. — Lusit. ; Hisp. ; Gall, 

 occ. mer. ; Ligur. ; Ital. med. mer. ins. ; Croat. ; Dalm. ; 

 Attica ; Algeria ; Euboea ; Corinth ; Cyclad. ; Creta ; Thrac. 

 or. Richter (Plantce Europcete, 1890) only gives " Kegio 

 mediterranea," which is certainly insufficient. 



P. minor is distinguished from P. canariensis by the 

 narrower shorter leaves, more cylindric panicle, and smaller 

 spikelets ; by the wing of the keel of the outer glumes, which, 

 though very variable in the same panicle, is scarcely ever 

 entire, and does not extend more than half-way down the 

 keel ; and by the presence of only one rudimentary glume, 

 much smaller proportionately than those of P. canariensis. 



