PO A R IGID A. | Spec. Plant.
Harsh Poa.
Spec. Char. Panicle spear-shaped; branches solitary, rigid, and alternate on each side
o f a marginated rachis.
Harsh Poa is one of those plants which seems to evade the ideas of man in regard to its utility; the
scantiness and poverty of its herbage renders it totally unfit for the useful food of any animal, even
could its rigidity be disregarded: its delight is the most arid places, walls, and dry ditch banks: its
weak and short roots seem not to be calculated to ameliorate the soil for the reception o f better plants
(as is observable in many other instances), nor does there reside in it an apparent virtue, fitting it
for any purpose that we know of.------ Early in spring the seed of the preceding autumn vegetates,
and throws out weak and simple leaves, which during the rains of that season retain their verdure,
but when the moisture ceases, it withers away, and the flowering spike appears; its weak roots seem
hardly competent to furnish nutriment to both at the same time.
Our knowledge in regard to the application and utility o f the good works of creation is more
limited and confined than superficial observation is aware of, nor is it probable that the lapse of ages
will so far augment our information as to render many of them convertible to the uses of man:
nor are we certain that their- designation is of that immediate importance as some have supposed,
but that in their obscure state they fill exactly the space allotted them, and operate collaterally and
distinctly in the great chain of nature, without its being of importance to man to discover or indicate
their absolute utility.
A, the Calyx.
B, the Corolla.