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numerous flowering stems, not stoloniferous, or with very short autum- 
nal stolons, without sestival leafy barren shoots. Stems erect, not 
swollen at the base, green, rarely glaucous ; the uppermost knot about 
the middle of the stem. Leaves narrowly linear, tapering towards the 
apex, gradually pointed and hooded, green, rarely slightly glaucous ; 
sheaths smooth, slightly compressed and bluntly ancipitate, the upper 
one usually shorter than its leaf, rarely as long as its leaf ; ligule 
extremely short, truncate. Panicle erect or drooping at the apex, 
usually nearly equal and pyramidal in flower, but sometimes par- 
tially distichously secund and oblong in flower, usually closed and 
linear in fruit. Panicle-branches 1 to 5 at the lower nodes of the 
rachis, but usually 3 or 4, the longer ones unbranched and bare of 
spikelets at the base for about half their length, spreading or spread- 
ing-ascendiug in flower, commonly erect and often adpressed in fruit, 
scabrous. Spikelets elliptical-lanceolate, 1- to 6 -flowered. Glumes 
both 3-nerved. Florets free, or more or less connected at the base by 
arachnoid hairs. Lower pale acute or subacute, obsoletely 5-ribbed, 
with the midrib and marginal ribs silky-hairy in the lower third, 
whoUy pale green, rarely tinged with pale purple, especially towards 
the tip, with narrow white scarious margins. 
Var. a, vulgaris. Gaud. 
Plate MDCCLXYni. 
Green. Stem weak, not at all rigid. Uppermost sheath usually 
shorter than its leaf. Panicle erect or slightly drooping, lax, equal, 
broadly pyramidal and open in flower, closed afterwards. Spikelets 
3- to 5-flowered, pale green. 
Var. ^, angustifolia. Parn. 
Green. Stem weak. Uppermost sheath scarcely half the length of 
its leaf. Panicle erect, lax, equal, narrow, slightly open in flower, 
closed afterwards. Spikelets 1- to 3-flowered, usually 2-flowered, pale 
green. 
Yar. 7, coarctata. Gaud. 
Slightly glaucous. Stem firm. Uppermost sheath scarcely half the 
length of its leaf. Panicle erect, nearly equal, narrow, contracted in 
flower and closed in fruit. Spikelets 3- or 4-flowered, stained with 
purple and reddish-brown. 
