describe. The name is Greek, and signifies fodder. All the species are perennial, with the exception of P. annua, which is an annual, as the name indicates. It flowers from April to September, and abounds in meadows, pastures and by road-sides.
The Cock's-foot-grass (Dactylis glomerata) is an ingredient of most pastures, and one of our most familiar grasses. Its long stout stem creeps for a distance, then rises very erectly and gives off horizontal flowering branches. The violet-tinted spikelets are gathered into dense one-sided clusters. Each spikelet contains three or four flowers, which are supposed to be arranged after the fashion of fingers on a hand, whence the Greek name Daktulos, fingers. Each flowering glume ends in a short awn-like point. This is the only British species. It is generally distributed, and will be found in waste places as well as pastures, flowering in June and July. The whole plant is rough to the touch. The leaves are long, flat and keeled.
Cat's-tail, or Timothy-grass (Phleum pratense), and
Vernal-grass (Anthoxanthum odoratum).
Timothy is one of the most valuable of our grasses, and forms an important portion of the hay crop, from the fact that it is one of the earliest and most abundant species. The inflorescence is a crowded spike, reminding one somewhat of a miniature reproduction of the Reed-mace (Typha). The spikelets are one-flowered. The outer glumes are boat-shaped, with a stout green keel, fringed with stiff hairs. The flowering glume is glassy, and entirely included within the outer ones, from which, however, the long stamens and feathery stigmas protrude. The anthers are yellow and purple. The plant is perennial, and flowers from June to September. The name Phleum is the classic Greek one for the plant. The figure represents
