GENUS 3. 



GRASS FAMILY. 



i. Miscanthus sinensis Anderss. Japanese 

 Plume-grass. Fig. 257. 



Saccharum polydactylon (3 Thunb. Fl. Jap. 43. 1784. 

 Saccharum japonicum Thunb. Trans. Linn. Soc. 2 : 



328, in part. 1794. 

 Erianthus japonicus Beauv. ; R. & S. Syst. 2 : 324. 



1817. 



Ripidium japonicum Trin. Fund. Agrost. 169. 1820. 

 Eulalia japonica Trin. Mem. Acad. St. Petersb. VI. 



2: 333- 1832. 

 Miscanthus sinensis Anderss. Oefv. Sv. Vet.-Akad. 



Forh. 1855: 166. 1856. 



Stems 3-6 tall ; leaf-blades up to 3 long and 

 8" wide; panicle 8'-i6' long, its branches erect or 

 ascending; spikelets 2\"-2.\" long, yellowish 

 brown, shining, glabrous, encircled at the base 

 with white or purplish hairs equaling or exceed- 

 ing them, the awn 4" -5" long, spirally twisted at 

 the base. 



Escaped from cultivation at Washington, D. C., 

 and on Long Island ; also in Florida. A native of 

 China, Japan and the Celebes. 



4. ERIANTHUS Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. i : 54. 1803. 



Tall generally robust perennial grasses, with long flat leaves, and perfect flowers in 

 terminal panicles. Spikelets generally with a ring of hairs at the base, 2 at each node of the 

 jointed rachis, one sessile, the other with a pedicel, generally i-flowered. Scales 4, the two 

 outer indurated, the inner hyaline, the fourth bearing a terminal straight or contorted awn ; 

 palet small, hyaline; stamens 3. Grain oblong, free, enclosed in the scales. [Greek, referring 

 to the woolly spikelets.] 



About 21 species, natives of the temperate and tropical regions of both hemispheres. Besides 

 the following, three or four others occur in the Southern States. Type species : Anthoxanthum 

 giganteum Walt. 



Awns flat, closely spiral at the base, geniculate ; apex of the fourth scale deeply 2-cleft. 



Basal hairs twice as long as the yellowish spikelets which are nearly concealed in the copious 



hairs of the cream-colored panicle. i. E. divaricatus. 



Basal hairs sometimes equaling but not exceeding the brown spikelets which are plainly 



visible through the brown panicle. 2. E. contortus. 



Awn terete, or flat only at the very base, not spiral at the base, straight ; fourth scale usually 



entire, rarely shortly 2-toothed. 



Spikelets 2" 3" long, exceeded by the basal hairs. 3. E. saccharoides. 



Spikelets ^"-4^/2" long, much exceeding the basal hairs. 4. E. brevibarbis. 



i. Erianthus divaricatus (L.) Hitchc. Woolly 

 Beard-grass. Fig. 258. 



Andropogon divaricatus L. Sp. PI. 1045. I 7S3- 

 Andropogon alopecuroides L. Sp. PI. 1045. 1753. 

 Erianthus alopecuroides Ell. Bot. S. C. & Ga. i : 38. 



1816. 

 Erianthus divaricatus Hitchc. Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 



12: 125. 1908. 



Culms stout, erect, 6-io tall; nodes naked or 

 barbed, the summit and the axis of the panicle 

 densely pubescent with appressed long rigid silky 

 hairs. Sheaths glabrous or hirsute; blades usually 

 glabrous, 6'-2 long, i'-i' wide, acuminate, narrowed 

 and sometimes hairy on the upper surface near the 

 base ; panicle oblong, 7'-i2' long, 2'-$' wide, branches 

 3'~5' long, slender, loose ; outer scales of the spike- 

 let about 3" long, exceeding the pedicel and about 

 two-thirds as long as the basal hairs, lanceolate, 

 acuminate; inner scales shorter, the awn 6"-8" 

 long, scabrous. 



In damp soil, New Jersey to Oklahoma, south to 

 Florida and Texas. Sept. Plume-grass (Tenn.). 



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