MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



31 



sometimes over large areas called canebrakes, common in the low- 

 lands of the larger rivers, Virginia to southern Ohio and Illinois, 

 south to Florida, eastern Texas, and Oklahoma (fig. 2). The species 

 flowers at infrequent intervals and then over a wide area simulta- 

 neously. Livestock eagerly eat the young plants, leaves, and seeds, 

 and canebrakes furnish much forage. The young shoots are some- 

 times used as a pot herb. The culms are used for fishing rods, pipe- 

 stems, baskets, mats, and a variety of other purposes. Early trav- 

 elers speak of the abundance of this species and state that the culms 

 may be as much as 2 or even 3 inches in diameter. It is said that 

 the" plants are easily destroyed by the continuous grazing of cattle 

 and by the rooting of swine. 



W?2. Arundinaria tecta (Walt.) Muhl. Small cane. (Fig. 3.) 

 Culms usually not more than 2 m tall, from stout rhizomes ; racemes 

 produced on leafless or nearly leafless shoots from the base of the 

 plant or from creeping rhizomes ; otherwise like the preceding. % 

 — Coastal Plain, Maryland (Stony Kun) to Florida and Louisiana 

 (fig. 4). Nuttall reports this (under the name Miegia pumila) from 

 what is now southeastern Oklahoma. Also called switch cane. This 

 species may be only a small form or variety of A. gigantea. 



Several species of bamboos are cultivated for ornament in parks 

 and gardens, especially in Florida and Califor- 

 nia. Descriptions of these may be found in 

 L. H. Bailey's Standard Cyclopedia of Horti- 

 culture and in Hortus (Hortus, L. H. and E. Z. 

 Bailey, 1930). They belong to the genera 

 Arundinaria, Bambusa, Cephalostachyum, Chus- 

 quea, Dendrocalamus, Phyllostachys, Sasa, and 

 Thamnocalamus. One of the commonest of 

 the cultivated species is Sasa japonica (Sieb. 

 and Zucc.) Makino (Arundinaria japonica Sieb- and Zucc). Grow- 

 ing in dense colonies, 2 to 3 m tall with vigorous rhizomes ; branches 

 cylindric; blades evergreen, 10 to 20 cm long, 2 to 5 cm wide. 



The genus Phyllostachys may be distinguished by the branches 

 flattened on one side. P. aurea A. and C. Riviere is frequent; 

 branches yellowish, often bright yellow, the lower internodes very 

 short; plant 3 to 5 m tall. 



TRIBE 2. FESTUCEAE 



2. BROMUS L. Bromegrass 



Spikelets several- to many-flowered, the rachilla disarticulating 

 above the glumes and between the florets; glumes unequal, acute, the 

 first 1-to 3-nerved, the second usually 3- to 5-nerved ; lemmas convex on 

 the back or keeled, 5- to 9-nerved, 2-toothed, awned from between the 

 teeth or awnless ; palea usually shorter than the lemma, ciliate on the 

 keels. Low or rather tall annuals or perennials with closed sheaths, 

 usually flat blades, and open or contracted panicles of large spikelets. 

 Standard species, Bromus sterilis (type species, B. secalinus). Name 

 from bromos, an ancient Greek name for the oat, from broma, food. 



The native perennial species of bromegrass form a considerable 

 portion of the forage in open woods of the mountain regions of the 

 Western United States. Bromus carinatus, California brome, and 



55974°— 35 3 



Figure 2. — Distribution of 

 Arundinaria gigantea. 



