248 PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



Spartina. Schreb. 3. 1. Rough Grass. 



Three species, cynosuroides, W., glabra, IMiihl., and juncea, 

 W., are in this State ; coarse and rough grasses, somewhat sedge- 

 like, about marshes ; all in the vicinity of Boston. Two of the 

 species are large, 3-5 feet high. 



ZlZANIA. L. 19. 1. 



Derived from a Greek name of another and very different 

 plant. This is a native of America, and found about all the 

 northern Lakes. 



Glume none ; seed 1, enveloped in the plaited paleae. 



Z. aquatica. Lamb. Water Oats. Wild Rice. Culm 

 4-6 feet high, jointed, large, with a wide-spreading panicle of 

 flowers tapering to the apex, and large leaves ; seeds half an inch 

 long, smooth and blackish, abundant, and resembling rice in their 

 properties, as they form fine flour. It is suggested by Dr. Bige- 

 low, that it might be profitably cultivated to render " large tracts 

 of inundated ground and stagnant water " useful, as horses are 

 fond of it, and as it yields an abundant crop. The seeds are 

 collected and eaten by the Indians around the great Lakes ;and, 

 though they are the most valuable part of the plant, they fall off" 

 early and easily, so as to render it difliicult to collect them. 

 Pinkerton says, " this plant seems intended by nature to become 

 the bread-corn of the north." Loudon. The plant has been in- 

 troduced into England, and grows, as in this country, around 

 ponds. 



In the eastern part of this State, it grows on the sides of ponds 

 and slow streams. Big. It must of course form valuable food 

 for the wild geese, and many other animals at the North. 



Milium. L. 3. 2. 



JM. pungens. Torrey. This is the Dwarf Millet Grass, to 

 be added to those in the " Geology." 



Erect, slender, 12-18 inches high, simple, stiff"; radical leaves 

 6-8 inches long, a line wide, acute ; panicle few-flowered. The 



