much longer than their internodes, shortly ascending-pilose in the upper part 

 and long erect-pilose at the apex dorsally, or rarely nearly glabrous; blades 

 elongate-arcuate, the upper ones nearly surpassing the panicle, folded or eventually 

 involute, 5-10 mm. broad when flattened; panicle 2-6 dm. long, 8-30 cm. broad, 

 open and diffuse, of numerous usually slightly to markedly ascending branches 

 bearing several secondary branches (these often deflexed) which in turn bear the 

 long capillary spreading pedicels (8-18 mm. long); spikelets 2-4 mm. long, 

 markedly tapered, (1- or) 2- to 4-flowered; lemmas 1.7-2.2 mm. long, ovate, 

 blunt, with obscure lateral nerves, falling individually from the intact rachilla. 



In marshy areas, alluvial areas, and in open sandy woods, in Okla. (Nowata 

 Co.) and in e. and s.e. Tex., s.w. to San Patricio Co., summer-fall; Coastal 

 States, Me. to Tex. and inland to Tenn., Ark. and Okla.; Br. Hond. 



7. Eragrostis Elliottii Wats. 



Tufted perennial (not knotty basally); culms 4-8 dm. long, erect; ligule a 

 minute lacerate-f ringed scale; sheaths long, shortly pilose at the corners, otherwise 

 glabrous; blades rolled up marginally, stiffly ascending to a very slender tip; 

 panicles erect, 25-50 cm. long, nearly as broad as long, very diffuse, with 

 numerous long stiff antrorsely scabrous capillary branches that in turn bear long 

 straight mostly deflexed capillary pedicellary branchlets 1-3 cm. long (these 

 bearing spikelets only at the end, not along the length); part of the panicle often 

 included in the uppermost sheath; spikelets strongly laterally compressed, remote, 

 linear, 5-12 mm. long, mostly 8- to 15-flowered, about 1.5 mm. broad; lemmas 

 ovate, about 1.5 mm. long, not falling away individually but the rachilla of the 

 spikelet eventually breaking up by mechanical action. 



Rare in wet sandy open woods, wet meadows and low grounds, in extreme 

 s.e. Tex. near the coast, summer-fall; Coastal States, from N.C. to Tex.; W.I., 

 Mex.; Br. Hond. 



8. Eragrostis glomerata (Walt.) L. H. Dewey. 



Annual; cuims 2-10 dm. long, erect, sparingly branched and geniculate in 

 the lower third; panicles erect or slightly nodding, 5-50 cm. long, only \—4 cm. 

 broad, with numerous long main branches and these in turn further branched, all 

 the branches strictly ascending; spikelets nearly sessile, 2-3 mm. long, 6- to 8- 

 flowered; lemmas about 1 mm. long; palea glabrous or merely scabrous on the 

 keels; rachilla eventually abscising above the glumes and between the florets. 



Rare in roadside ditches, on wet banks of ponds, streams and lakes, in Okla. 

 (LeFlore Co.) and in e. Tex., summer-fall; widespread in warmer parts of the 

 New World n. to S.C. and the Gulf States; also waifed n. to Mo. 



9. Monanthochloe Engelm. 

 A monotypic North American genus. 



1. Monanthochloe littoralis Engelm. Fig. 88. 



Perennial forming extensive mats by rhizomes and/or stolons; flowering culms 

 ascending, 5-25 cm. long; branches of 2 size-classes; few-noded elongate culms 

 with leaves 10-15 cm. long, bearing in the axils many-noded short shoots with 

 crowded leaves 5-10 mm. long; sheaths and blades extremely short, very firm, 

 indurate-wiry, folded-falcate, grayish-green; male and female flowers on separate 

 plants; panicles reduced to solitary 3- to 5-flowered spikelets, appearing terminal 

 and embedded in the masses of leaves of the short shoots, difficult to find; 

 glumes apparently absent; lemmas coriaceous or in the pistillate spikelet like the 

 leaves; upper florets rudimentary; rachilla of pistillate floret tardily abscising at 

 the lower part of the nodes. 



198 



