114 POACEAE 
50. ANTHOXANTHUM L. 
Erect aromatic annual or perennial grasses, with flat leaf-blades and terminal usually 
dense spike-like panicles. Spikelets articulated above the empty scales, 1-flowered, nar- 
row, a little compressed, crowded. Scales 5, the 2 outer persistent, empty, acute, mu- 
cronate, or short-awned, the second longer than the others, the third and fourth scales 
much shorter, empty, narrow, keeled, awned at the middle or near the base, the fifth 
scale shorter than the remainder, hyaline, obtuse, awnless, enclosing a 1-nerved palet and 
a perfect flower. Stamens 2. Styles distinct. Stigmas elongated, plumose. 
1. Anthoxanthum odoràtum L. Stems 3-6 dm. tall, erect, tufted : leaf-blades 1-15 
cm. long, 2-6 mm. wide: panicle 2-6 cm. long: spikelets 8 mm. long. 
In fields and meadows throughout nearly the whole of North America. Naturalized from Europe. 
Summer. SwEET VERNAL GRASS. 
51. SAVASTANA Schrank. 
Aromatie perennial grasses, with flat leaf-blades and contracted or open panicles. 
Spikelets 3-flowered, the terminal flower perfect, the others staminate. Scales 5; first and 
second nearly equal; third and fourth a little shorter, awned or awnless, enclosing a palet 
and stamens ; fifth scale, often with a short awn, enclosing a palet and a perfect flower. 
Stamens in the staminate flowers 3, in the perfect 2. Styles distinct. Stigmas plumose. 
1. Savastana odorata (L.) Scribn. Stems 3-6 dm. tall, simple: leaf-blades gla- 
brous ; blades on the innovations 1-3 dm. long, 2-6 mm. wide, those on the stem 1—5 em. 
long, broad : panicle 5-10 cm. long, its branches usually spreading, naked at the base: 
spikelets 4-6 mm. long. 
In moist or wet places, Newfoundland and New Brunswick to British Columbia, and in or near 
the mountains to North Carolina (according to Chapman), Arizona and Mexico, and Oregon. Spring 
and summer. VANILLA GRASS. HOLY GRASS. 
52. ARISTIDA L. 
Tufted grasses, with narrow and often convolute or setaceous leaf-blades and contracted 
or open panicles, which are sometimes nearly racemose: Spikelets 1-flowered, narrow. 
Seales 3, the outer 2 membranous, persistent, empty, narrow, keeled, awnless, usually 
longer than the third scale which is of firmer texture, narrow, rigid, strongly convolute 
about the 2-nerved palet and the perfect flower, often with a prominent callus at the base, 
3-awned from the apex, the generally spreading awns glabrous to plumose, the central awn 
commonly flexuous, coiled, or bent, the lateral awns often shorter, occasionally very short 
and erect, the 3 awns sometimes more or less connate at the base and the column thus pro- 
duced articulated to the scale. Stamens 3. Styles distinct. Stigmas plumose. POVERTY 
Grass. WIRE GRASS. 
A. Awns not articulated to the scale. 
Central awn coiled at the base. 
First scale usually equalling or sometimes slightly shorter than the second 
scale which is generally 7-9 mm. long. 
First scale much shorter than the second (often but little more than 1 as 
uou which is 10-15 mm. long. 
Lateral awns short, straight and erect, 1-2 mm. long, the central awn 
usually more than five times their length, its straight portion 5-8 
mm. long. : 2. A. Curtissii. 
Lateral awns more or less spreading, usually a little spiral at the base, 
the central awn from 1 again to twice their length, its straight por- 
tion from 10-15 mm. long. 3. A. basiramea. 
Central awn not coiled at the base. 
a. Panicle narrow, linear to oblong, the branches generally short (or the 
lower ones in No. 24 commonly elongated and ascending), usually erect 
or ascending, sometimes spreading. 
Central awn and sometimes the lateral ones also strongly reflexed, the 
bend semicircular. 
Stems simple or nearly so: spikelets many, the first scale 1-nerved, or 
sometimes with an additional faint nerve on each side. 
Spikelets less than 1 cm. long, the first scale strongly hispidulous, 
the lateral awns of the flowering scale much more slender than 
1. A. dichotoma. 
the central awn. 4. A. simplicifiora. 
Spikelets more than 1 cm. long, the first scale glabrous, the lateral 
awns about as stout as the central one. 5. A. Mohrii. 
Stems much branched : spikelets few, the first scale 5-7-nerved. 6. A. ramosissima. 
Signes awn from erect to spreading with no semicireular bend at the 
ase. 
* First scale much shorter than the second, usually about 14 as long. 
