414 MISC. PUBLICATION 200, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



80. BRACHYELYTRUM Beauv. 



Spikelets 1-flowered, the rachilla disarticulating above the glumes, 

 prolonged behind the palea as a slender naked bristle ; glumes minute, 



the first often obsolete, the second some- 

 times awned; lemma firm, narrow, 5- 

 nerved, the base extending into a pro- 

 nounced oblique callus, the apex 

 terminating in a long straight scabrous 

 awn. Erect, slender perennials with short 

 knotty rhizomes, flat blades, and narrow, 

 rather few-flowered panicles. Type species, 

 -^ ^t Brachyelytrum erectum. Name from Greek 

 ^jp£^r brachus, short, and elutron, cover or husk, 

 alluding to the short glumes. 



1. Brachyelytrum erectum (Schreb.) 

 Beauv. (Fig. 859.) Culms 60 to 100 

 cm tall; sheaths sparsely retrorse-hispid, 

 rarely glabrous; blades mostly 7 to 15 

 cm long, 1 to 

 1.5 cm wide, 

 scabrous, spar- 

 ingly pilose be- 

 neath, at least 

 on the nerves 

 and margin; 

 panicle 5 to 15 

 cm long, the 



short branches appressed; second 

 glume 0.5 to 2 mm long; lemma sub- 

 terete, about 1 cm long, scabrous, the 

 nerves sometimes hispid, the awn 1 to 

 3 cm long. % — Moist or rocky 

 woods, Newfoundland to Minnesota, 

 south to Georgia and Oklahoma. 



(fig. 860). 



81. MILIUM L. 



Spikelets 1-flowered, disarticulat- 

 ing above the glumes; glumes 



Figure 860.— Distribution of 

 Brachyelytrum erectum. 



Figure 861— Milium effusum. Plant, X M; spikelet and floret, X 5. (Phillips, Maine.) 



equal, obtuse, membranaceous, rounded. on the back; lemma a little 

 shorter than the glumes, obtuse, obscurely nerved, rounded on the 

 back, dorsally compressed, in fruit becoming indurate, smooth and 



