long; sepals 3, minute; stigmas 3, filiform, sessile, channeled and with usually 

 2 rows of papillae; fruit a membranous capsule with 3 parietal placentae, enclosed 

 in the sheath; seeds numerous; staminate flowers not seen. 



In shallow salt water along the Gulf Coast, occasional in beach drift; from 

 Fla to Tex., the Bah. I. and W. I. 



Ottelia alismoides (L.) Pers. Vegetatively resembling a large, coarse Plantago; 

 leaves thin, submerged or partly emersed, broadly ovate to suborbicular or cordate- 

 reniform, to 21 cm. in diameter, with 7 to 1 1 prominent parallel curved veins; 

 peduncle several-angular, to 3 dm. tall; spathe elliptic to ovate, with 2 acute tips, 

 1 -flowered; flowers sessile, fragrant; sepals linear to oblong, obtuse, 1 -nerved, to 

 16 mm. long and 4 mm. wide; petals obovate, 2-3 cm. long, white to very pale 

 pink, slightly darker distally yellow-based; anthers bright yellow; fruit oblong, 

 rostrate, 2-4 cm. long, crowned by the sepals, bursting irregularly. 



This Afro-Asian plant has recently been found in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, 

 in shallow, clear water in McCain's Fishing Lake, about 3 miles southwest of 

 Sweet Lake (15 miles south of Lake Charles), about 30 miles east of the Texas 

 state line. It probably is only a matter of time before it is found in similar locations 

 in Texas. 



Fam. 24. Gramineae Juss. Grass Family 



Herbs or less commonly woody reedlike plants; roots fibrous; leaves distichous, 

 each with a more or less sheathing lower portion ("sheath") and a terminal usually 

 more or less linear blade, often at the juncture of sheath and blade an adaxial 

 fringe- or scalelike structure ("hgule"); in each axil often a small 2-nerved 

 asymmetric (in transection often H-shaped) structure ("prophyll"); leaves often 

 with a meristem near the ligule that permits continued elongation; flowers (florets) 

 very much reduced, perfect or neuter, less commonly staminate or pistillate, 

 usually aggregated distichously in small clusters known as spikelets, each flower 

 comprising the genitalia (when present) at the base of which are usually 2 minute 

 bulbs or scales ("lodicules"), this floret subtended usually by a minute adaxial 

 prophyll-like bract scale (palea) and a slightly larger abaxial bract scale (lemma); 

 lemmas (when more than one present) distichous on the spikelet axis (rachilla); 

 base of spikelet usually with 2 empty bract scales (glumes), or one of these some- 

 times obsolete or rarely both glumes absent; perianth absent; stamens 1 to 6 

 (usually 3); ovary a usually dorsiventrally flattened 1 -celled uniovulate structure; 

 style deeply divided into 2 (rarely 3) long feathery stigmas; fruit ("grain," 

 "caryopsis") an achenelike structure but with the ovary wall usually tightly co- 

 herent to the solitary endosperm-containing seed (ovary wall apparently not per- 

 sistently tightly adherent to seed in Sporobolus and some species of Muhlenbergia) , 

 or in some genera (e.g., Panicum, etc.) the word "fruit" is used to refer to the 

 lemma and its contents since in these plants the lemma tightly and persistently 

 clasps the grain and thus constitutes a spurious outer fruit layer. Poaceae Barnh. 



One of the largest families of flowering plants, the Gramineae are the most im- 

 portant economically as measured by several criteria. They produce the dietary 

 staples of most of the world's population. One species, rice, is the most important 

 of all the grasses and probably the single most important plant species in the 

 world. 



(Many data, including an adaptation of the generic key, have been derived 

 from the work of A. S. Hitchcock, Manual of the Grasses of the United States, 

 U. S. Dept. Agric. Misc. Publ. No. 200, 2nd ed. revised by Agnes Chase, 1055 pp. 

 1950.) 



169 



