(α) Sections of sheathed leaves acute: either two-edged or four-edged. (1) Section of sheathed leaves quadrangular. Blades of leaf thin and dry, sparsely hairy. Sheath quite entire. Woods and shady places. _Melica uniflora_, L. (Wood Melick). Lamina slightly tapered below, convolute. Ligule obsolete, with a stiff subulate process on the sheath opposite the blade-insertion. Ridges below, but not above. _Melica nutans_, L. (Mountain Melick). Ligule longer, and without the awl-shaped peg. Only in Scotland and W. of England. Both are shade grasses of no agricultural value. _M. uniflora_, with its quadrangular shoots and anti-ligular peg, cannot be confounded with any other grass. (2) Sections of sheathed leaves more or less acutely two-edged, owing to the keels of the compressed equitant leaves. (i) _Shoots broad and fan-like, much compressed, with old brown leaf-sheaths below, sometimes burst by the intra-vaginal branches: leaf ridgeless, with prominent keel. No underground stolons._ _Dactylis glomerata_, L. (Cock’s-foot). An early and quick-growing pasture-grass, which forms much aftermath. Grows on all soils. Often coarse. Coarse tussocks, and harsh, with broad thick succulent bluish-green leaves. Section of sheathed leaves acutely naviculate. Prominent obtuse ligule, torn above. Lamina long, rough, acute, with white lines if held up, and serrulate edges. No flanking lines[6]. No stolons (Fig. 6). There is a cultivated variety of _Dactylis_ with broad opaque white stripes down the leaves: these are totally different from the translucent white stripes seen on holding the wild form, or _Aira cæspitosa_, up to the light. Another cultivated “ribbon-grass”--_Digraphis_--has _round_ shoots, _split_ sheaths, and a different habit, and the same applies to its wild form. Probably the only serious chances of confusion with _Dactylis_ are between it and _Poa pratensis_, which also has flattened shoots and closed sheath; but in the latter the section of the shoot is _elliptical_--not _naviculate_,--the keel is far less prominent, and the ligule shorter. Moreover _P. pratensis_ is a creeping stoloniferous grass, less harsh, and with less pointed leaves. The distance to which the sheath is torn may be from 1/8 to 1/2 down. Leaves tend to remain conduplicate. Margins serrulate with teeth extremely short and directed forwards. (ii) _Shoots compressed but narrow: the section almost rhomboid with rounded edges._ _Poa trivialis_, L. (Rough-stalked Meadow-grass). Conspicuous in deep rich pastures and orchards, preferring slight shade and rich soil. Valuable pasture and hay grass.