p 
Spreading, capillary 5 fpikelets feven-flowered, and leaves 
fmooth; culm branched. Culm (heathed with leaves, 
round, ftriated, fmooth, upright, two feet high and more. 
Leaves enfiform, narrow, ftriated, ftiorter than the culm, 
a Ipan in length. Sheaths long, without any hairs. 
Panicle from eredt fpreading, very much branched, a foot 
long. Spikelets eredt, from five to nine flowered, fub- 
pellucid. It differs from P. capillaris in the number of 
flowers, ali fmooth, in the fmoothnefs of the leaves, not 
hairy even at the bafe, and in the uprightnefs and fupe- 
rior height of the culm. Native of Japan, in Kofido, and 
near Nagafaki. 
36. Poa Malabarica, or Malabar meadow-grafs : branches 
of the panicle quite Ample ; flowers feflile; feeds diftant; 
culm creeping. Flowers by no means feflile, but pedi- 
celled, and more remote and elongated than in the Chi- 
nenfls. Leaves and fheaths naked. Native of the Eaft 
Indies, in fandy ground. 
37. Poa Chinenfis, Qr Chinefe meadow-grafs: branches 
of the panicle quite Ample; flowers feflile; feeds imbricate; 
culm eredh Leaves hairy; efpecially at -the fheaths. 
Flowers pedicelled. It varies with tw'o, three, and four, 
flowered calyxes, no lefs than in height. Native of India, 
China, and Cochinchina. 
38. Poa pundlata, or dotted-flowered meadow-grafs : 
panicle diffufed ; fpikelets twelve-flowered ; flowers dia¬ 
phanous, even; with a brown fpot within. Culms a foot 
and a half high, attending, even, the thicknefs of a pi¬ 
geon’s quill, with very fweliing joints, often three in 
number. Leaves fomewbat rugged, even underneath, 
longer than the internodes, rugged on the edge, and 
having a few eredf hairs towards the bafe. Panicle 
fpreading like that of Milium effufum. Spikelets lanceo¬ 
late, twelve or fourteen flowered; florets diaphanous, 
with a dot (from an anther) within of a duflcy colour, 
and a green ftreak on each fide. Native of Malabar. 
39. Poa nutans, or nodding meadow-grafs: panicle 
contradled, nodding at the top; fpikelets ten-flowered,; 
valves reverfed. Culms from two to three feet high, 
round, eredf, Ample. Leaves narrow, fhort. Spikelets 
reddifh or whitifh green, linear, containing about ten 
florets : the outer valve of the corolla is bent doum at 
the tip, and has the margins reverfed. Native of the 
Eaft Indies. Koenig ftnt it from Tranquebar, where it is 
frequent on the borders of fields, and in paddy-grounds 
that are not over wet. 
40. Poa tenelln, or fmall meadow-grafs: panicle oblong, 
capillary, fomewbat whcrled ; flowers fix together, very 
minute, nodding. Root annual. Culms even, proftrate, 
branched at bottom. Flowers oblong, blunt, purplilh, 
with a green line on each fide ; the margin appearing to 
be ciliate, when examined with a magnifier. It is ob- 
ferved by Retzius, that not only the leaves are hairy at the 
throat, or opening, but that the whole panicle at the bafe 
of the peduncles has bundles of long white hairs, from 
three to fixteen in number. Native of the Eaft Indies. 
Introduced in 1781, by Monf. Thouin. It flowers in 
July and Auguft. 
41. Poa maritima, or fea meadow-grafs: panicle 
branched, fomewhat fqueezed together; fpikelets five- 
flowered; florets bluntifh, roundiflt, obfoletely five nerved; 
root creeping. Root perennial, creeping. Culms decum¬ 
bent at the bafe, from fix inches to a foot in height, very 
fmooth, round, ftriated, leafy. Leaves rolled in, fo as to 
refemble thofe of rufties, glaucous, acute, with long 
(heaths. Stipule blunt, but iometimes (harpifti. Panicle 
upright, ftridt, or little fpreading; branches commonly 
in pairs, angular, rugged, a little flexuole, racemed, fpread¬ 
ing when in flower, and afterwards eredt, fometimes diva¬ 
ricating, as in P. diftans, to which it is very nearly allied ; 
differing however in having the root creeping, the florets 
longer, (harper, and by no means retufe. Spikelets linear, 
fmooth, purplilh, five-flowered or thereabouts; (three to 
feven or eight, HudJ.) Calycine glumes unequal, ovate, 
iliarpifli, keeled ; outer three-nerved. Florets fomewhat 
O A. 727 
remote, oblong, fubcylindrical, bluntifh but not retufe; 
fcarce apparently five-nerved, lefs fcariofe at the tip; 
inner glumes rugged at the edge, emarginate at the tip. 
Inner valve of the corolla very minutely ferrulated. Na¬ 
tive of Denmark, Britain, Germany, and France, on fandy 
coafts, and in fait marflies; about Yarmouth ; between 
Briflol and the Hot-wells ; near the canal from Droitwich 
to the Severn; meadow's near Wilbech, &c. &c. in Scot¬ 
land, in the ifland of Oranfa, in Skye, at Loch-Broom in 
Rofsfhire, &c. It flowers in July. See the annexed Engra¬ 
ving, fig. 2. 
42. Poa procumbens, or procumbent fea meadow-grafs : 
panicle- lanceolate, diredted one way, fqueezed clofe, 
rugged ; rachis round ; fpikelets four or five flow ; ered ; 
■ flowers bluntifh, nerved. Root fibrous, forming a turf. 
Culms feveral, more or lefs proftrate, about a fpan long, 
leafy, fmooth, bent at the joints. Leaves widifli, acute, 
flat, nerved, fomewhat rugged, with very long (heaths. 
Dr. Smith affirms that this grafs has an annual root. 
On the contrary, Mr. Curtis fays, “from the fame root, 
which is clearly perennial, we have, as in Poa annua, 
young (hoots and ripe feeds. However P. procumbens 
feems to be no more perennial than that.” We may add, 
from Curtis’s defcription, that the fiems are from four to 
fix inches or more in length, having two or three joints, 
flattened towards the panicle. Leaves flrort, two lines 
broad, the edges very minutely ferrulate. Stipule (horr, 
embracing, fomewhat pointed, white. Sheath gloffy 011 
the infide; the outer furface the fame as that of the 
leaves. Panicle about two inches long, fomewhat ovate, 
now and then bent a little backwards : the branches in 
pairs, unequal, the outer one largeft: in the lower 
branches a (ingle (pikelet is moll commonly placed in the 
middle betwixt them ; in impoverifhed fpecirnens, a (pike¬ 
let often holds the place of a branch. Spikelets in the 
larger branches about fix, in the fmaller four, fomewhat 
linear, roundifli, (lightly flattened, equidiftant. Florets 
obtufe, hairy at the bafe. Calyx-valves green, edged 
with white, fomewhat blunt; corolla-valves almoft equal; 
the outer rather larger and five-ribbed; the inner nar¬ 
rower and two-ribbed; the ribs edged with hairs. Germ 
obovate, pale green. Nectary, two fmall tranfparent 
glumes, tumid and flefliy at the bafe, a little longer than 
the germ. Seed oblong, fmooth, inclofed in the glumes. 
Mr. Curtis firft difcovered this grafs in the autumn of 
1793, at the foot of St. Vincent’s rocks, on the edge of 
the river. Sir Thomas Frankland found it growing in 
the inundated parts of the wafte ground weft of the w’es; 
dock, below Clifton ; and afterwards abundantly on the 
pier at Scarborough, within the fpray of the fea. Mr, 
Curtis was informed, that it had alfo been found on the 
Effex coaft. 
Dr. Smith obferves, that Cynofurus durus, which is 
undoubtedly a Poa, is very nearly allied to this; fcarcely 
differing from it except in its more rigid habit, more 
Ample panicle, its flexuofe flatted fmooth unftreaked 
rachis, and the outer calycine glumes nine-nerved. He 
informs us, that Dr. Goodenough fufpedts Mr. Hudfon’s 
full defcription under his P. maritima may belong to this 
plant. He obferves farther, that P. procumbens, with 
maritima, diftans, Feftuca fluitans, and Cynofurus durus, 
form a very natural tribe of Poa, with blunt florets, whofe 
valves are ribbed, and w-hofe fpikelets are fcarcely fo 
truly ovate as the charadfer of thisgenu-s requires. They 
are joined to the other fpecies by means of P. rigida and 
comprefl’a, and, no doubt form a natural genus with them. 
43. Poa rigida, or hard meadow-grafs : panicle lanceo¬ 
late, diftich, and pointing one way, fqueezed clofe, fmooth ; 
rachis margined ; fpikelets feven flowered ; flowers round, 
nervelefs. Root annual, furniflied with few fibres. Culms 
feveral, from four to eight inches high ; almolt upright, 
but in maritime fituations often proftrate ; rigid, round, 
purplilh, very fmooth and (hining, leafy at the bafe, with 
two knots or joints. Panicie rigid, lanceolate, an inch 
and half to near three inches long, diredled one way in a 
double 
& 
