POA N 1C MORAL IS.{ spec. Plant.
Wood Poa.
Sp e c . C h a r. Panicle with feeble branches; spikets with two or three florets; straw slender
and inclining; leaves attenuated.
Of all our British Pose this is the only one which inhabits woods, others of the genus are occasionally
found there, but the nemoralis vegetates almost entirely in sylvan and shady places; it is rather an
elegant plant, and more easy to be distinguished by the eye than by description; the branches constituting
the panicle are very slender and weak, supporting but few spikets, compressed at the first,
but expanding much when in maturity; the straw is feeble, slender, and inclining.
I f Poa nemoralis possesses any virtues, they are wholly unknown in their present state, but as it
is one among the few grasses that thrive in glooms and shades, it might be attended with some profit
to encourage the growth o f it in open groves, where cattle are permitted to stray, or where they retire
from the irritation of flies, that they may at those periods find food, and eat it unmolested; but it
promises not much, its straw is o f no importance, nor is the foliage abundant.----------In open and
exposed situations Poa nemoralis becomes much altered in appearance, the spiculae are larger, the
panicle less expanded, and the whole plant less feeble and attenuated. Fig. 2.
A, Spikets of plants in different stations.
B, the Calyx.
C, the Corolla*