136 
ENGLISH BOTANY. 
open during flowering, each containing 8 to 11 perfect florets. 
Glumes 2, unequal, shorter than the spikelets, keeled, mucronate, 1- to 
5 -ribbed, subherbaceous. Pales 2, the lower one keeled, entire or 
notched at the apex, mucronate or shortly awned from immediately 
below the tip, with 5 or more ribs, the ribs converging into the mucro 
or awn. Upper pale bifid or truncate, 2 -ribbed. Lodicules 2, bifid. 
Stamens 3. Styles 2, short or rather long ; stigmas long and plumose or 
short and hairy. Caryops free, glabrous, oblong or obovate, placed 
convex or subtregonous, with or without a furrow on the inner face. 
The name of thia genus is derived from ^ak-nrXof , a finger. 
SPECIES t-D ACT YL IS GLOMERATA. Linn. 
Plate MDCCLXXVIH. 
Eeich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Heir. Vol. I. Tab. CXLYH. Figs. 363 and 364. 
Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 2591. 
Densely caispitose rootstock, not creeping. Flowering stems ascend- 
ing or erect. Leaves rather flaccid, broadly linear, gradually tapering 
to the apex, which is slightly hooded, ultimately nearly flat (in the 
British form), strongly keeled, with numerous broad continuous flat- 
tened slightly scabrous ribs ; sheaths compressed, strongly ancipitate, 
scabrous and minutely pubescent, the uppermost one about as long as 
its leaf ; ligule very prominent, triangular, acute, generally lacerate. 
Panicle erect or slightly drooping wiien in flower, distichously uni- 
lateral. Panicle-branches solitary at the lower nodes of the rachis, 
the lowest ones usually elongate and bare of spikelets at their base 
for half their length or more ; the upper ones very short, all bearing 
unilateral clusters of spikelets towards the apex : or in small speci- 
mens the lower elongate panicle-branches wanting, and the spikelets 
in a compact unilateral slightly-lobed spike-like panicle. Spikelets 
subsessile, clustered, 2- to 5-llowered, but usually o-llowered. Glumes 
slightly unequal, shorter than the florets, lanceolate, acuminate or 
shortly awned. Lower pale indistinctly notched at the apex, ciliated 
on the keel. Awn from the bottom of the notch, about one-third or 
one-fourth the length of the pale. 
In meadows, pastures, woods, an<l waste places, &c. \'ery common 
and universally distributed. 
England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer, Autumn. 
Stems numerous, thick, 15 inches to 3 feet high. Leaves 6 inches 
to 1 foot long by ^i- to I inch broad, at fii-st folded together, but after- 
