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[ 1719 ]
POA cæsia.
Sea-green Meadow-grass.
TRIANDRIA Digynia.
G en. Char. Cal. o f 2 valves, containing many florets.
Spikelet rounded at the base. Cor. o f 2 ovate,
pointed, beardless valves.
Spec. Char. Panicle spreading. Spikelets ovate, five-
flowered. Glumes lanceolate, silky-edged, unconnected
by any web. Stipula very short and blunt.
Syn. Poa cæsia. Sm. FI. Brit. 103.
M y first knowledge of this plant was derived from specimens
sent from Scotland to Mr. Fairbairn of Chelsea garden,
and I have been obliged to have recourse to that collection for
what appears in the annexed plate, hiving never seen a wild
specimen. The late Mr. J. Mackay sent me others from his
own garden, the roots of which he had brought from Ben
Lawers and other Highland mountains.
This is a perennial grass, flowering in June and July, and
remarkable for its glaucous hue; The spikelets are prettily
varied with purple, white, green, and a silvery gloss, occasioned
by a range of satin-hké hairs near the edges of the
outer glumes, as well as on the keel. It is one of those Poce
whose florets are destitute of that complicated connecting web
at the base, so remarkable in several others. The root is
fibrous, tufted. Stems about a foot high, round, smoothish,
with 2 joints near the bottom. Leaves linear-lanceolate*
bluntish, flat, rough to the touch, except on the back near
the base. Sheaths roughish, about as long as the leaves.'
Stipula variable in size and shape. Panicle upright, spreading*
much branched, with rough stalks. Spikelets ovate, of about
5 florets, their calyx-valves nearly equal. Florets blunt, a
little remote, on a zigzag hairy common stalk j their inner
valves rough-edged.