Botanical 
| the viviparous 
variety. 
Name. 
Agricultural 
value. 
Varieties. 
104 
the surface and thus serve as wings which allow the false-fruits to be acted upon and distributed by 
the wind. 
The upper pale like the lower possesses hair on both its keels, especially at the base, a peculiarity 
remarkably rare (fig. 3). 
The false-frwit varies in length from 3 to 3.5 mm. Its hair has just been described. The stal/ 
is Obliquely truncate (fig. 4). 
The caryopsis varies from 41.5 to 2 mm. in length. It is triangular and the ventral surface is 
slightly concave (fig. 6). 
On the Alps, the viviparous variety is more abundant than the normal. The spikelets form young 
description of plants instead of producing seed. 
The axis of the spikelet is transformed directly into the axis of the young plant and certain pales 
become the foliage leaves*). In this way, the spikelet is metamorphosed into a bud (bulbil) which 
later on detaches, strikes root in the ground and developes a new plant. This metamorphosis of the 
spikelet is quite different from a phenomenon frequently observed in cereal grasses. The seeds of the 
cereal germinate and develope into a young plant while they are still in the ear. In the viviparous Poa. 
the young plant is not at all formed from a seed, but, by the metamorphosis of a spikelet, which is 
Virtually a bud, into a young plant. This is a case of non-sexual multiplication closely analogous to the 
non-sexual multiplication of onions by axillary bulbils and of potatoes by their tubers. 
In the same panicle, all gradations between the normally developed pale and the green leaf into 
which it is metamorphosed may be readily observed in different spikelets. The glumes and the lower 
pale of the first flower never undergo metamorphosis; the first flower along with its upper pale is 
also normal and fertile (figs. 7 to 9). 
The lower pale of the second flower is either partially or completely inetamorphosed into a green 
leaf; jt becomes abnormally long, the apex bends inwards, towards the axis of the spikelets, the longi- 
tudinal veins increase in number, transverse and anastomosing veinlets become developed, and the hairs 
disappear; sheath, blade and ligule become differentiated and the foliage leaf is perfect (figs. 10 to 41; 
see also explanation of plate). The flower and upper pale produced in the axil of this lower pale are 
always normal. 
The lower pale of the third flower is sometimes partially, but usually completely metamorphosed. 
In its axil, a leaf bud is sometimes produced instead of a flower. The rest of the spikelet is usually 
completely metamorphosed. The metamorphosed part of the spikelet above the second leaf easily 
detaches as a whole and usually consists of two or three leaves. At a very early period the roots 
develope at the base (fig. 11). 
In Switzerland Alpine meadow-grass is variously named: Wild-grass, Bulbous-rooted grass, etc. 
This grass, along with tufted red fescue (Festuca rubra var. fallax forma nigrescens), 
Meum Mutellina, Gertner, and alpine plantain (Plantago alpina, IL.) often constitutes a 
very essential part of alpine pastures. Its high nutritive value should be sufficient recom- 
mendation for any pasture in a mountainous district. 
Varieties. Five varieties are distinguished: 1. Viviparous Alpine meadow-grass, Poa alpina vivipara. 
The spikelets are metamorphosed into leaf buds. 2. Common Alpine meadow-grass, Poa alpina vulgaris. 
This is similar to the preceding, but the spikelets are normal. 3. Poa alpina badensis. The leaves 
are short and cartilaginous on the margins. 4. Poa alpina brevifolia. This is similar to the preceding. 
5. Poa alpina frigida. This is a diminutive form found on the high Alps. Of these, Poa alpina vivi- 
para and Poa alpina vulgaris are alone of agricultural importance. 
*) A. B. Frank in his Handbook «The Diseases of plants» states on page 251 that the bulbil of Poa alpina, lawa 
and minor corresponds to a flower; fig. 51 represents a spikelet with the upper pales rudimentary. In a written commu- 
nication (which I am authorised to use) he states that further examination has convinced him that my statement in the 
text above is correct, and that the rudimentary pales so called in fig. 51 of his work are in reality rootlets. 
