Spikelets many-flowered, ovate or heart-shaped, flattish-tumid; the flowers closely imbricated. Glumes roundish, unequal, purplish, very concave or ventricose, 3–5-nerved; the flowering ventricose on the back, heart-shaped at the base, papery-membranaceous and becoming dry, scarious-margined, obscurely many-nerved; the palet much smaller, ovate, flat. Stamens 3. Stigmas branched-plumose. Grain flattened parallel with the glumes, adhering to the palet.—Leaves flat; panicle loose, diffuse, with large showy spikelets often drooping on delicate pedicels. (Βρίζα, the Greek name of a kind of grain.)
B. mèdia, L. Panicle erect, the branches spreading; spikelets 5–9-flowered (3´´ long); lower glumes shorter than the first flowering one; root perennial. —Pastures; sparingly eastward. June. (Adv. from Eu.)
64. PÒA, L. Meadow-Grass. Spear-Grass. ([Pl. 10.])
Spikelets ovate or lance-ovate, laterally compressed, several- (2–10-) flowered, in an open panicle. Empty glumes mostly shorter than the flowers, the lower smaller; flowering glume membranaceo-herbaceous, with a delicate scarious margin, compressed-keeled, pointless, 5-nerved (the intermediate nerves more obscure or obsolete), the principal nerves commonly clothed with soft hairs at and toward the often cobwebby base; palet membranaceous, 2-toothed. Stamens 2 or 3. Stigmas simply plumose. Grain oblong, free.—Culms tufted, from perennial roots, except n. 1. Leaves smooth, usually flat and soft. (Πόα, an ancient Greek name for grass or fodder.)
[*] Low and spreading (3–6´ high) from an annual or biennial root, flaccid; branches of the short panicle single or in pairs.
P. ánnua, L. (Low Spear-Grass.) Culms flattened; panicle often 1-sided, usually short and pyramidal, sometimes more slender (P. cristata, Chapm.); spikelets crowded, very short-pedicelled, 3–7-flowered.—Cultivated and waste grounds, everywhere. April–Oct. (Nat. from Eu.)
[*][*] Low; the culms (6–20´ long) geniculate-ascending from a running rootstock, rigid, very much flattened; panicle simple and contracted.
P. compréssa, L. (Wire-Grass. English Blue-Grass.) ([Pl. 10], fig. 1–4.) Pale, as if glaucous; leaves short; panicle dense and narrow, somewhat one-sided (1–3´ long), the short branches mostly in pairs; spikelets almost sessile, 3–10-flowered, flat.—Dry, mostly sterile soil, in waste places; rarely in woods. (Nat. from Eu.)
[*][*][*] Low alpine or alpestrine species, erect, in perennial tufts.
[+] Soft and flaccid, smooth or nearly so, even to the branches of the panicle; leaves short and flat, short-pointed; ligule elongated.