C l o 7l ]
P O A bulbofa.
Bulbous Meadow-grafs.
Hf\
TRIA NDRIA Digynia.
G en. Char. Cal. of a valves, containing many florets.
Sfikelet rounded at the bafe. Cor. of a ovate,
pointed, beardlefs valves.
Spec. Char. Panicle flightly zigzag. Spikelets o f
four flowers. Glumes connected by a web.
Leaves finely ferrated. Stem bulbous at the bate.
Syn. Poa bulbofa. Linn. Sp. PI. 102 a and y. Sm.
FI. Brit. io a . Hudf. 4 1 . With. 14a. Hull. 21.
Gramen vernum, radice Afcalonitidis. Vatll. Par.
t. 17. ƒ. 8.
W h e n the Flora Britannica was in the prefs this grafs
was fo little known I found myfelf obliged to adopt it on the
authority of Hudfon, defcribing it from the Linnæan fpecimen.
Fortunately before the publication of that work Mr. Stone
favoured me with a native plant of P. bulbofa from Yarmouth
Denes, and I was enabled to mention it . in the preface.
Mr. Turner fent the prefent fpecimen from thence, and I have
obferved great plenty of the fame at Loweftoft. Mr. W . Borrer
has found it at Little Hampton^ SulTex.
This grafs is peculiarly fitted to inhabit dry fandy ground.
Its bulbs grow in clufters, refembling little onions, and during
mod part of fummer remain inaftive, blown about at
random. With the autumnal rains they vegetate, fix them-
felves by long downy radicles, then produce thick tufts of
leaves (a grateful fpring food for cattle); and in April or May
they flower, having in the mean while formed young bulbs,
which, as foon as the herbage withers, are difperfed like their
predeceflors. By thefe bulbs, the ferrated leaves, and the woolly
web connecting the florets, added to the broad veinlefs glumes
and fmall panicle, this fpecies may be known with fufficient
certainty.
P . bulbofa @ Linn, is a viviparous oriental grafs, very diftinCt
in fpecies from this, as well as from P . alpina. Mr. Afzelius
informs me he- cannot account for the Itrange miftake in
Withering, p. 143, for which he is quoted.