GENUS 108. 



GRASS FAMILY. 



108. ARUNDINARIA Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. i : 73. 1803. 



Arborescent or shrubby grasses, with simple or branched culms and flat short-petioled 

 leaf-blades which are articulated with the sheath. Spikelets borne in panicles or racemes, 

 2-many-flowered, large, compressed. Empty scales i or 2, the first sometimes wanting; 

 flowering scales longer, not keeled, many nerved ; palets scarcely shorter than the scales, 

 prominently 2-keeled. Lodicules 3. Stamens 3. Styles 2 or 3. Stigmas plumose. Grain 

 furrowed, free, enclosed in the scale and palet. [From Arnndo, the Latin name of the Reed.] 



About 24 species, of Asia and America. Type species : Arundinaria macrosperma Michx. 



Spikelets borne on radical shoots of the year; culms 14 tall or less. i. A. tecta. 



Spikelets borne on the old culms, which are 16 tall or more. 2. A. macrosperma. 



i. Arundinaria tecta (Walt.) Muhl. Scutch 

 Cane. Small Cane. Fig. 718. 



Arundo tecta Walt. Fl. Car. 81. 1788. 

 Arundinaria tecta Muhl. Gram. 191- 1817. 



Culms 3-i4 tall, erect, shrubby, branching 

 at the summit, smooth and glabrous. Sheaths 

 longer than the internodes, smooth or rough, 

 ciliate on the margins; ligule bristly; blades 

 lanceolate, 3* '-8' long, ^"-12" wide, flat, more 

 or less pubescent beneath, glabrous above; ra- 

 cemes terminal, or on short leafless culms; 

 Spikelets /-io-flowered, i'-ii' long, on pedicels 

 i' in length or less, which are sometimes pu- 

 bescent; empty scales unequal, the first usually 

 very small, sometimes wanting; flowering scales 

 6"-io" long, acute or acuminate. 



In swamps and moist soil, Maryland to Indiana, 

 Missouri, Florida and Texas. Switch-cane. Reed. 

 Cane-brake. May-July. 



2. Arundinaria macrosperma Michx. Giant 

 Cane. Fig. 719. 



A. macrosperma Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. i: 74. 1803. 



Culms woody, i6-3o tall, finally branched above; 

 sheaths ciliate on the margins, otherwise glabrous; 

 blades lanceolate, smooth or roughish, i long or 

 less, the larger io"-i5" wide, those on the ultimate 

 divisions smaller and crowded at the summit of the 

 branches ; inflorescence on the old wood, the spike- 

 lets \\'-2.\' long, on slender more or less leafy 

 branches, the flowering scales glabrous or hirsute, 

 acuminate. 



Forming " cane brakes " along rivers and swamps, 

 Virginia to Florida, west to Louisiana, and along the 

 Mississippi River and its tributaries as far north as 

 Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri. May-July. 



Family n. CYPERACEAE J. St. Hil. Expos. Fam. i : 62. 1805. 



SEDGE FAMILY. 



Grass-like or rush-like herbs. Stems (culms) slender, solid (rarely hollow), 

 triangular, quadrangular, terete or flattened. Roots fibrous (many species peren- 

 nial by long rootstocks). Leaves usually with closed sheaths. Flowers perfect 

 or imperfect, arranged in spikelets, one (rarely 2) in the axil of each scale (glume, 

 bract), the spikelets solitary or clustered, i-many-flowered. Scales 2-ranked or 

 spirally imbricated, persistent or deciduous. Perianth hypogynous, composed of 

 bristles, or interior scales, rarely calyx-like, or entirely wanting. Stamens 1-3, 

 rarely more. Filaments slender or filiform. Anthers 2-celled. Ovary i-celled, 

 sessile or stipitate. Ovule i, anatropous, erect. Style 2-3-cleft or rarely simple 

 or minutely 2-toothed. Fruit an achene. Endosperm mealy. Embryo minute. 



