90 NORTH AMERICAN FLORA [VoLuUME 17 
12. ERIOCHRYSIS Beauv. Agrost. 8. 1812. 
Usually rather low grasses, with commonly flat leaf-bladesand terminal dense contracted 
hairy panicles. Spikelets hairy, 1-flowered, in pairs along the articulate branches of the 
panicle, the sessile spikelet perfect, the pedicellate one pistillate. Scales 4; outer 3 empty ; 
fourth scale hyaline. Stamens 3. Styles distinct. Stigmasplumose. Grain free, oblong, 
included in the scales. 
Type species, Ariochrysis cayanensis Beauv. 
1. Eriochrysis cayanensis Beauv. Agrost. 8. 1812. 
Stems up to 1.5 m. tall; leaf-sheaths usually pubescent, at least toward the apex, 
rarely glabrous; blades up to 2 dm. long and 1.5 cm. wide, usually densely pubescent on 
both surfaces; inflorescence usually golden-brown, dense, linear-oblong, obtuse, 1-3 cm. 
in diameter, up to 2 dm. long or sometimes more, the internodes of the rachis and the 
pedicels clothed with long golden-brown hairs on the margins aud sometimes more spar- 
ingly on the back; spikelets oblong-elliptic, the callus and the margins of the first scale 
clothed with long goiden-brown hairs which envelope the spikelet, the sessile spikelet 2-2.5 
mm. long, the pedicellate spikelet a little smaller. 
TYPE LOCALITY: French Guiana. 
DISTRIBUTION: Tropical America. 
ILLUSTRATIONS: Beauv. Agrost. p1. #, 7. 11; Lam. Tabl. Encyc. p/. 908; Dict. Sci. Nat. 
Monocot. p/,. 20; Kunth, Enum. 1: Suppl. pl. 38, f. 7. : 
13. ERIANTHUS Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 54. 1803. 
Ripidium Trin, Fund. Agrost. 169. 1820. 
Spodiopogon Fourn. Mex. Pl. Gram. 52. 1881. Not Spodiopogon Trin. 1820. 
Tall perennial grasses, with usually robust stems, flat leaf-blades, and open or con- 
tracted, usually hairy, panicles. Spikelets dorsally compressed, 1-flowered, perfect, in pairs 
at each node of the articulate and usually hairy rachis, with a basal ring of long hairs, 
rarely naked, one sessile, the other pedicellate. Scales 4, the outer firm, often hairy, the 
remainder hyaline ; first scale flat on the back, 2-keeled, the margins infolded ; second scale 
keeled, 1-3-nerved; third scale empty, sometimes mucronate ; fourth scale often 2-toothed 
or 2-cleft at the apex, bearing an imperfect or sometimes a perfect awn ; palet small, hya- 
line. Stamens 2 or 3. Styles distinct, elongate. Stigmas plumose, usually exserted at 
the side of the spikelet. 
Type species, Authoxanthum giganteum Walt. 
Flowers diandrous. : 
Anthers 1.5-2.5 mm. long, exserted, together with the stigmas, at the time of flowering. 
Spikelets with a basal ring of hairs at least one half their length, the outer 2 scales long- 
pilose or becoming glabrous. 
Awn flat, closely spiral at the base, forming a pronounced column, at the apex of which 
it is usually bent, the terminal portion contorted or loosely spiral; apéx of the fourth 
scale deeply 2-cleft and long-ciliate. : 
Basal hairs twice as long as the yellowish spikelets which are 
nearly concealed in the copious hairs of the cream-colored panicle. 1. £. divaricatus. 
Basal hairs sometimes equaling but not exceeding the brown spike- 
lets which are plainly visible in the brown panicle. 2. £. contortus, 
Awn terete, or flat only at the very base, without a spiral basal 
column, sometimes loosely or slightly twisted, not bent; fourth 
scale usually entire, rarely shortly 2-toothed. 
Spikelets 4-6 mm. long, exceeded by the basal hairs. 
Panicle yellowish-white, the spikelets nearly concealed by the 
copious hairs; basal hairs usually over twice as long as the 
spikelet. 3, &. Tracyt. 
Panicle grayish-brown, the spikelets evident through the sparser 
hairs; basal hairs usually less than twice as long as the 
spikelet. 
Internodes about as long as the spikelet, or shorter. 4. E. saccharoides. 
Lower internodes much exceeding the spikelets. 5. £, laxus. 
Spikelets 8-9 mm. long, much exceeding the basal hairs. 6. E. brevibarbis, 
Spikelets naked at the base or with a few hairs, the outer 2 scales densely 
appressed-hispid. 7. E. strictus. 
Anthers 1 mm. long or less, rarely larger, they and the stigmas never ex- 
serted from the spikelet. 8. £. Trini. 
Flowers triandrous. 9. EB, jamaicensis. 
