TfillNDRIA. DIOYNIA. 49 



common to Siberia, the south of Europe, Hudson's Bay, 

 and the Missouri. 



5. CRYPSIS. Lamarck, (Thorn-Grass.) 



Calix 2-valved, oblong, 1 -flowered. Corolla 

 2-valved, longer than the calix. Stamina 2 or 

 3. (Spike surrounded at the base by the sheath 

 of the leaf; or the flowers collected into a leafy 

 capitulum.) 



Culm decumbent or procumbent, extremely branched; 

 leaves rig-id and pung-eni; flowers collected in squarrose 

 heads, or short and dense irregularly involucrate, lobed 

 spikes. 



Species. 1. C. * squarrosa. Srem decumbent, much 

 branched; leaves short, all rip^id, and !»harply pung-ent; ca- 

 pituli squarrose, few flowered; dorsal valve of the corolla 

 coriaceous, somewhat cleft at the point, with a shortish 

 subulate central cusp. 



On arid plains near the *' Crand Detour" of the Mis- 

 souri, almost exclusively covering- th .usands of acres, 

 and as pungent as thoi'ns. O Not more than 3 or 4 

 inches high; the flowers not collected into heads, as in 

 the European species, but merely in squarrose terminal 

 fascicles; the outer glume of the corolla is likewise cleft 

 so as to present 3 short coriaceous subulate points. 



2 Tir^nica Spike oblong, thick and lobed, generally 

 sheathed by the mflated vaginae of 2 short leaves; stem 

 procumbent, genicuiate, nodes nunrerous, approximat- 

 ing; leavis involute, rigid, and pungent; culix carinate, 

 shoi'ier than the corolla. 



Agrostis virgimca. \\ illd Sp. Plant, ^^grostis pungens. 

 Schreber. Gram. 



Leaves short, filiform subulate, rigid and divaricate, al- 

 most entirely smooth,and somewhat glaucous; culm decum- 

 bent branched from tlie base; spikes closely sheathed, axil- 

 lary and terminal, about an inch long, sometimes oblong- 

 ovaie, lateral sj) kcs f)fun very sliort and roundish, rachis 

 thick and angular at the base; calix nearly equal, compress- 

 ed carinate, acute, shorter than the corolla, ciliate. on the 

 carina (seen through a lens); corolla valves often rather 

 unequal, inner valve somewhat obtuse, naked at the base; 

 style exserted, long. 



Grows in the stieets of Philadelphia. Dr. W. Bartok. 

 In Virginia. I'ursh. 

 It appears to be allied to Phleum, but more distinctly 



r 



