The SEVEN VEGETABLE FAMILIES. 
fir.ooth, and hollow fiender Stem, TwelUng at diftances into round, hard, 
paler, and more folid Knots, from whence arife the Leaves, covering ufu- 
a!lv the Stalk for a conliderable part of their courfe. 
This is the vifible and common Charafler of the Family, and I have 
therefore feledted a Plant which, befides this, (liews fomething fingular in 
the courfe of growth, a peculiar kind of luxuriance from the Rinds. This 
Species is frequent in our Northern Counties ; and throughout all the 
colder part of Europe. Van Royen and Linn^us of the moderns ; and 
among thofe a little earlier, Scheukzer and the Bauhines knew the 
Plant. They have, diftinguiflied it by the names Gramen Foliis Junceis, 
and Foliis Setaceis ; the Rufliy, or the Briftly Leafed Grass, from the 
rounded form of its Leaves ; but with good nourifliment they will grow 
fomething broader. 
Scheukzer ranges it among the Paniculate Spartean Grasses; Lin- 
N.^us once referred it to that Genus which he calls Festuca; but he 
lias fince removed it to the Poa ; to which, according to the Generic 
Characters, it moft certainly belongs. The term Viviparous, which he 
has given as its diftindion, is bold ; but he has Genius with Philofophy, 
and has called into the fervice many Metaphors, and often happily. Strid- 
ly fpeaking neither is it Proliferous, tho’ Scheukzer, and the red, have 
diftinguillied it by that title. There are Grasses in which the Seed grows 
in the Ear, and will produce a perfed Plant; but this has lefs title to that 
term ; and the utmoft we can attribute to it, is a llrange and very plea- 
ling luxuriance of the Rinds. 
The Root confifts of many dufky Fibres, long, tough, thready, and 
not much divided. The Leaves rife in fmall tufts, and are perfed, but 
fmall Grass ; narrow and firm. The Stalks are alfo numerous. In bar- 
ren ground they will flower at three inches high : when the Soil fuits them 
fomewhat better, they grow to five or fix inches, and fometimes to a foot : 
and in this date it is that the Plant is mod perfed ; and from this it oftened 
grows luxuriant. The Stalk rifes furrounded with Leaves, and the whole 
Tuft with a few light Films. 
The Stalk has ufually three Joints, one -of -which is always near the 
Root, and fcarce didinguidiable, becaufe pf the involving Leaves : fome- 
times a fecond is alfo very low : the upper one is always mod confpicuous. 
The Stalk is pale and thin. The Joints fwell into a little- roundnefs, and are 
hard. One Leaf, as is ufual, rifes from each Joint ; dender and fmall, as 
thofe from the Root, or very little broakr. At the -fummit dands a flat 
Ear, 
