ALOPECURUS geniculatus.
Floating Fox-tail-grass.
TRIANDRIA Digynia.
G en. C har. Cal. of 2 valves, containing a single
floret. Cor. of 1 valve.
S pec. C har. Stem ascending, bent at the joints. Spike
somewhat compound, cylindrical. Glumes obtuse,
hairy.
Syn. Alopecurus geniculatus. Linn. Sp. PL 89. Sm.
FI. Brit. 74. Huds. 27. With. 120. Hull. 16.
Relh. 25. Sibth. 35. Abbot. 12. Curt. Land,
fasc. 5. t. 6. Mart. Rust. t. 97.
Gramen aquaticum geniculatum spicatum. R a il
Syn, 396.
V e r y frequent in watery situations, by the sides of ditches
and ponds, and most commonly floating to a great extent
upon their surfaces, flowering in July.
The root is fibrous and perennial. Stems several, various
in length, smooth, branched, with many bent joints, the lowermost
of which throw out numerous simple radicles when
they float on the water. Leaves much broader and shorter
than in the last described, smoothish, with long and somewhat
inflated sheaths. Stipula oblong, very thin. Spike cylindrical,
short in proportion to the stems, bluntish, branched
or divisible into lobes, green or purplish. Calyx-glumes nearly
equal, blunt, beardless, fringed with long hairs. Corolla very
blunt, smooth, crenate, with an awn from the base which
varies in length according to circumstances. Nectary none.
W e have found this grass occasionally on the top o f a very
dry wall, in which case its leaves and stem are greatly diminished
in size, and the roots become bulbous, with excessively
long fibres. This seems to be what Hudson mistook for the
real A . lulbosus figured in our last plate.