PHAL A R I S canariensis.
Manured Canary-grass.
TRIANDRIA Digynia.
G en. Char. Cal. of 2 carinated equal valves, longer
than the corolla, single-flowered.
Spec. C har. Panicle ovate, like a spike. Calyx-glumes
boat-shaped. Corolla o f four valves. Root fibrous.
Syn. Phalaris canariensis. Linn. Sp. PI. 79. Sm. FI.
B r it.62. Huds.23. With. 113. Hull. 15. Sibth.33.
Mart. Rust. t. 17.
P. major semine albo. Dill, in Raii Syn. 394.
N o W naturalized in cultivated grounds, though probably not
originally a native. W e gathered it in Kennington fields. It is
annual, flowering from June to August. Its small polished
seed is well known to those who feed Canary-birds.
The root consists of several white fibres. Stems one or more,
2 feet high, striated, leafy, with brown joints. Leaves broad
and acute, soft and pliable, with scarcely any roughness: their
sheaths long, inflated, striated. Stipula oblong, obtuse. Spike
or panicle solitary, terminal, erect, ovate, dense, compound,
elegantly variegated with green and white. Calyx o f 2 equal
compressed glumes, dilated upward, slightly pointed, and having
a very broad keel, which in our specimens is always undivided.
They are all over more or less hairy. Corolla much
shorter than the calyx, o f 2 principal unequal downy valves,
invested at their base with 2 smaller acute smooth ones, which
some might call an inner calyx. Styles and Stigmas slender.
Seed ovate, shining, pale yellow.