78 NEW ZEALAND NATURE-STUDY BOOK 
named a panicle. A great many grasses have an 
inflorescence of this type. Compare the inflorescence in 
the Oat, Smooth Meadow Grass (Poa pratensis) and York- 
shire Fog. In each it is a panicle. 
Examine a spikelet of Sweet Vernal Grass (or of 
Timothy Grass or of Meadow Foxtail). Note that the 
spikelet is one-flowered. Bend the flower-head to one 
side and note the short branches supporting the spikelets. 
These branches are very short so that. 
the inflorescence is very compact (a 
spike-like panicle). Note the 
number of stamens in Sweet Vernal 
Grass. Examine a tuft of Yorkshire 
Fog, when in flower. Notice the soft. 
velvet-like hairy-covering of its leaves. 
This makes them difficult to wet, and 
for this reason, and because they have 
a bitter flavour, the grass is distasteful 
to stock. What kind of inflorescence 
has this grass? Note that the spike- 
lets are two-flowered, and that there 
is a short awn or bristle on the back 
of the “flowering glume’—the larger 
and stiffer glume facing the flower. 
Examine the ligule: it is short and. 
oblong. 
Examine a head of Oats. Note the spreading open 
panicle and the drooping spikelets. As these are large, 
their chief parts can be easily made out. Notice the 
two long outer glumes (chaffy when ripe); and within 
them the stiffer convex “flowering glume” facing the 
shorter more delicate two-nerved “palea.” Between the. 
“flowering glume” and the “ palea” lies the flower. It. 
has no calyx or corolla, but has three stamens and an. 
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Fig. 63.—Sweet Vernal 
Grass. 
