~ 
ge... :- TRIANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 
npon setaceous spikes disposed in a panicle.— 
Calixc 2-valved, 2-flowered, one of the flowers 
in the furm of an abortive pedicellate seta, 
valves rigid, subulate, and unequal, growing to 
the impressed angular rachis. Corolla, herma- 
phrodite, 2-valved, outer valve terminated by 
along and straight awn. © Neutral rudiment 
pedicellate, of one minute valve going out into 
anawn. Seed linear-oblong, internally marked 
with a longitudinal furrow, 
Allied to the genus Lepturus, of Mr. R. Brown; differ- 
ing, however, much in habit, and considerably in charac- 
ter, but destitute of all affinity with Andropogon. 
Species. 1. .2. Leptursides. Root perennial. Culm 18 
inches to 2 fvet, decumbent at the base, upwards assur- 
gent and erect, leafy, with short and numerous articula- 
tions. Leaves short, (1 and a half to 2 inches long) ovate- 
‘lanceolate, very acute, smooth, flat, rigidly spreading» 
and distichally approximate, perceptibly nerved on the 
under side, and exquisitely striate, near half an inch 
broad; shexths bearded externally at the summit, stipula 
obliterated. Panicle subverticiilate; spikes or racemes 
numerous (20 io 30) simple, setaceous, and very long, (4 
to 6 inches;) rachis angular, scabrous. Flowers inter- 
. Fupted, approximating towards the extremities, appressed 
to the rachis. Calix 2-valved, 2-flowered, (one of the flow- 
ers always imperfect and neutral,) growing to the rachis, 
Persistent, vaives unequal in length, very narrow, cari- 
nate, rigid and pungentiy subulate, each with a single 
nerve; the inner valve shorter, appressed to superficial 
depressions in the rachis;.rachis and calix purplish, €o- 
rolia bermaphrodite, 2-valved, dorsal valve hnear lanceo- 
late, obtusely carinate, 3-nerved, terminated by a slender, 
Straight, scabrous awn, nearly 3 times its own length, a 
Py ~ Nittie villous on the margin, and at the bases inner valve 
> flat, membranaceons, 2-nerved, acute Nesnti¥ fadiment 
_ pediceliate, very minute, l-valved, with an awn somewhat 
longer than the pedicell. Stamens 3, exserted. Styles 2; 
“stigma plumose, Seed naked, linear-oblong, with a de- 
sed furrow on the imner side, and an obtusely angular 
ridge on the other. . ies 
__On the banks of the Potomac, near Harper’s Ferry, 
Virginia, and in the pine barrens of Carolina and Georgia. 
This plant is in many respects very closely allied to 
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