SOME COLORADO GRASSES. 
13 
POA ALPINA (L.). 
(Alpine Meadow Grass.) 
Stems very smooth and scaly, growing in short tufts 
6 to 12 inches high; stem leaves smooth, flat; panicle 
short and broad, branches solitary or in pairs, spreading ; 
spikelets three to nine-flowered; glumes scarious and 
bronzy purple at apex. 
Occuring at high elevations and in exposed situations. 
It is to small to have much agricultural value. 
POA COMPRESSA (L.). 
(Flat-Stemmed Meadow Grass; Wire Grass.) 
Stems much flattened, decumbent, pale, wiry, about 
1 foot high; leaves finely pubescent, striate on the upper 
surface ; ligule truncate, hairy; panicle narrow, contracted ; 
branches solitary or in pairs; spikelets nearly sessile, about 
five-flowered, finely pubescent; glumes with purplish 
apex ; palet equal, obtuse. 
This grass is too small to have much value. 
POA CAESIA (Smith). 
Stems slender, wiry, rigid, 6 to 20 inches high; leaves 
very small, involute, scabrous; ligule short-pointed; 
panicle oblong or pyramidal, loose ; branches in 2s, 3s or 
5s, very scabrous; spikelets bronzy, three-flowered; outer 
glumes unequal, very acute, three-nerved, finely scabrous, 
rough on the keel; flowering glume obtuse, with broadly 
scarious apex, sparsely hairy on the mid-rib and 
margins; palet smaller than the glume; apex truncate, 
finely ciliate. 
This grass is well distributed in the mountains. It 
occurs in the shade of rocks along water courses, and is a 
constituent of native meadows in Middle Park. 
