POA BULBOSA. { Spec. Plant.
Bulbous-rooted Poa.
Spec. Chau. Panicle pointing in one direction; root bulbous.
Long unknown as was this plant in England, we now find it not uncommonly on several of our sea
coasts; our first specimens were sent us by Dawson Turner, Esq. and we afterwards found it plentifully
on the Denes at Yarmouth.----- Panicle, branches short, compact, and inclining in one direction,
but by transplantation the plant becomes enlarged, the branches expand, and the original distinctions
cease. Poa bulbosa flowers early in spring, and is perhaps of shorter duration than any other of our
grasses; its fine purple spiculse soon fade, and by the beginning of June nothing is visible but a dry
brown panicle. - Each bulb seems to consist of successive folds of sheathing, which are dry, and apparently
sapless, yet they wiU again vegetate finely in moist earth, when all powers o f resuscitation
seem .nnii.il,ted------ Poa bulbosa, in all the situations with which we are acquainted, inhabits dry and
arenaceous places on our sea shores; Mr. Hudson gives for the habitat o f this plant ' meadows and
pastures!’ There is a variety which seems to hold an intermediate station between this P.bulbosa
and the P. annua, in which the roots trail to considerable length, throwing out numerous fibres, each
fibre producing a variety of little bulbs o f different forms; and in this singularity i f alone varies from
P. annua: it inhabits the sandy commons in the vipinity of the sea on several o f our coasts. Kg. 2.
A, a Spicula.
B, the Calyx.
C, the Corolla.