✲✲ Maritime plant, more or less glaucous, with short ovoid spikes: glumes of the central flower bristle-like.
H. maritimum, With.
(b) Spike cylindrical, of sessile or nearly sessile awned spikelets, densely crowded round the axis, the whole resembling a fox’s brush or cat’s tail.
Species of Lagurus, Polypogon, Phalaris (not truly awned), Panicum (with bristles between the spikelets), and Gastridium are other British grasses approaching this type of inflorescence: they are all rare or very local.
Sesleria has an ovoid spike, but the spikelets are two-flowered and not truly awned.
Kœleria may present resemblances, but the spikelets are very different in detail (see p. [109]).
(i) Awns inserted into the back of the single palea, and hair-like. Glumes connate below, keeled. Only one palea.
Alopecurus.
✲ Annual corn-weed, with a long and slender spike, pointed above. Glumes almost glabrous, and connate to the middle.
A. agrestis, L.
✲✲ Perennials, with shorter and stouter spikes, rounded above. Glumes connate at the base only, and obviously hairy on the keel.
† Procumbent and kneed at the nodes below. Spike 1-2 inches long. In marshy places.