Spikelets 1-flowered, in a very dense cylindrical spike-like panicle. Lower glumes persistent, membranaceous, folded-carinate, subtruncate, mucronate or short-awned; flowering glume hyaline, shorter, truncate. Stamens 3. Styles distinct.—Perennials. (From φλέως, a Greek name for a kind of reed.)
P. praténse, L. (Timothy. Herd's-Grass in New Eng. and N. Y.) Tall; spike long-cylindrical; lower glumes ciliate on the back, tipped with a short bristle.—Meadows, commonly cultivated for hay. (Nat. from Eu.)
1. P. alpìnum, L. Low; spike ovate-oblong; lower glumes strongly ciliate on the back, tipped with a rough awn about their own length.—Alpine tops of the White Mountains, N. H., and high northward. (Eu.)
27. ALOPECÙRUS, L. Foxtail Grass. ([Pl. 7.])
Spikelets 1-flowered, jointed on the pedicel. Lower glumes boat-shaped, strongly compressed and keeled, nearly equal, united at base, equalling or exceeding the flowering glume, which is awned on the back below the middle; palet mostly wanting! Stamens 3. Styles mostly united. Stigmas long and feathered.—Clusters contracted into a cylindrical and soft dense spike; perennial. (Name from ἀλώπηξ, fox, and οὐρά, tail, from the shape of the spike.)
A. praténsis, L. (Meadow Foxtail.) Culm upright, smooth (2° high); the upper leaf much shorter than its inflated sheath; spike stout, 1½–2½´ long; flowering glume equalling the acute lower glumes; awn exserted more than half its length, twisted.—Meadows and pastures, eastward. May. (Nat. from Eu.)
A. geniculàtus, L. (Floating F.) (Pl. 7, fig. 1–4.) Culm ascending, often bent at the lower joints; upper leaf as long as its sheath; spike slender, 1–2´ long; flowering glume rather shorter than the obtuse lower glumes, the awn from near its base and projecting front half to twice its length beyond it.—Moist meadows, eastward. June–Aug. (Nat. from Eu.)
Var. aristulàtus, Torr. The awn very slender and scarcely exserted. (A. aristulatus, Michx.)—In water and wet places; common. June–Aug.
28. SPORÓBOLUS, R. Br. Drop-seed Grass. Rush-Grass. ([Pl. 7.])
Spikelets small, 1- (rarely 2-) flowered, in an open or contracted or spiked panicle. Lower glumes persistent, 1–3-nerved, not awned or pointed, the lower smaller; flowering glume of the same texture as the lower ones (membranaceo-chartaceous) and usually longer than they, naked, awnless and mostly pointless, 1-nerved (rarely somewhat 3-nerved); palet similar, 2-nerved. Stamens chiefly 3. Stigmas simply feathery. Grain globular to oblong or cylindrical, deciduous, often very thin, containing the loose seed.—Culms wiry or rigid. Leaves involute, the throat usually bearded, and sheaths often enclosing the panicles. (Name from σπορά, seed, and βάλλω, to cast forth.)