C i o 77 1
P H L E U M paniculatttrftV
Panicled Cat's-tail-grafs.
TRIANDRIA Digynia.
Gen. Char. Cal. tw o-valved, abrupt, pointed, feffilfy
longer than the corolla, fingle-flow ered.
Spec. Char. P a n ic le c y lin d r ic a l, re tem b lin g a fp ik e .
G lum e s n ak ed , tum id in th e ir upper part. S tem
b ran ch ed .
S y n . P h leum p an icu la tum. liuctf. 26. Sm. Fl. Brit. 70.,
With. 1 1 7 . Hull. 16 . Relh. Suppli r . 8. ed. 1. 24.
Phalaris paniculata. A it. Hart. Kew* v. 1 . 8 7.-
Sihth. 34.
T h e merit of making this grafs known to Britifh botanifts*
certainly belongs to Mr. Hudfon, who has given an excellent?'
defcription of it, though his fynonyms are all doubtful at leaft,
and the citation of Linnaeus certainly wrong. It is an annual
grafs occurring, but very rarely, on dry, elevated ground*
flowering in July. Mr. Hudfon feems to have gathered it near
Briftol. Mr. Relhan has fought for it in vain himfelf in
Cambridge {hire. In the Bankfian Herbarium are fpecimens-
from Badminton park, Gloucefterlhire, and Mr. Dawfon Turner
has communicated it to us from Bedfordfhire. The figure is
from a garden fpecimen, compared with wild ones.
Root of feveral ftrong fhort fibres. Stems feveral, branched*
leafy, very fmooth. Leaves numerous, upright, roughifh,
pointed, of a grafs-green, not at all glaucous, hue; inverting
the ftem with their long, ftriated, fomewhat fwelling fheaths.
Stipulae fomewhat oblong and pointed, generally torn. Panicles
folitary, ere&, and ftraight, 2 or 3 inches long, exafilly
refembling the denfe cylindrical fpike of the other fpecies; but
when bent to one fide, they are found to confift o f many branched
lobes, forming a true panicle, which feels rough, like a file,
from the fhort rigid awns of the flower. Calyx variegated with
green and white, wedge-fhaped, rough under a magnifier, of
two equal wedge-fhaped glumes, fwelling upwards, each tipped
with a fhort awn, and bordered on the infide with the genuine,
abrupt margin of a Phleum. Antherse fhort, whitifh.
This plant, unknown to Linnaeus, is the Phalaris ajpera of-
Relzius, Wildenow, and the French botanifts.