GRASS FAMILY 



183 



1. Arundo donax L. 

 Giant Reed. Fig. 416. 



Aruiido donax L. Sp. PI. 81. 1753. 



Culm? stout, as much as 7 meters tall, and 

 2 cm. in diameter at base, from rough knotty 

 branching rhizomes ; blades numerous, broad, 

 flat, 5-7 cm. wide on the main stem, smaller on 

 the branches, the base cordate and more or less 

 hairy-tufted; panicle large, 30-60 cm. long; 

 spikelets aliout 12 mm. long. 



A native of the Old World, frequently cultivated 

 for ornament in tropical America. Rather common 

 in gardens in the southern United States, and escaped 

 along irrigating ditches from Texas to central and 

 southern California. The only California specimen 

 in the National Herbarium is from the Alameda 

 marshes (Daiy). September. Type locality, Euro- 

 pean. 



52. PHRAGMITES Adans. Fam. Fl. 2: 34, 559. 1763. 



Spikelets several-flowered, tlie rachilla disarticulating above the glumes and between 

 the florets, clothed with long silky hairs, the lowest floret staminate or neuter; glumes 

 3-nerved or the upper 5-nerved, unequal, lanceolate, acute, the upper shorter tlian the 

 florets, the lower about half as long as the upper; lemmas narrow, long-acuminate, glabrous, 

 3-nerved, the florets successively smaller, the summits about equal ; palea much shorter 

 than the lemma. Perennial reeds with broad flat blades and large terminal panicles. 

 [Greek, growing in hedges.] 



Species 3, one in Asia, one in Argentina, and one cosmopolitan. Type species, Arundo phragmites L. 



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/ 



1. Phragmites phragmites (L.) Karst. 



Common Reed. 



Fig. 417. 



Arundo phragmites L. Sp. PI. 81. 1753. 

 Arundo ■i-ulgaris Lam. Fl. FranQ. 3: 615. 1778. 

 Phragmites communis Trin. Fund. Agrost. 134. 1820. 

 Phragmites phragmites Karst. Deutsch. Fl. 379. 1880. 

 Phragmites vulgaris B. S. P. Prel. Cat. N. Y. 69. 1888. 



Culms as much as 4 meters high, from long creep- 

 ing rhizomes, these sometimes appearing on the sur- 

 face of the ground as leafy stolons as much as 10 

 meters long ; blades as much as 5 cm. wide, flat, the 

 base somewhat narrowed, not hairy; panicle 15-40 

 cm. long; spikelets 12-14 mm. long. 



Freshwater swamps, marshes, and around springs, through 

 the temperate regions of the world; here and there from Wash- 

 ington to California. July-A'ov. Type locality, European. 



53. TRIODIA R. Br. Prodr. Fl. Nov. Holl. 1 : 182. 1810. 



Spikelets several-flowered, the racliilla disarticulating above the glumes and between the 

 florets ; glumes membranaceous, often papery, nearly equal in length, the first some- 

 times narrower, 1-nerved. or the second rarely 3-5-nerved, acute or acuminate, shorter or 

 longer than the first lemma ; lemmas broad, rounded on the back, the apex narrow or broad, 

 minutely emarginate or toothed, or deeply and obtusely lobed, 3-nerved, the nerves distant, 

 parallel or somewhat converging, disappearing before reaching the margin or extending 



