40 TRIANDRIA. ^lONOGTNIA. 



rolla coriaceous, subcylisidric-ovate, 2-valved, 

 suri'ouiided at the base with a line of pubes- 

 cence, the exterior valve awned at the summit, 

 Ferisporium 2-parted, linear. 



Culm nearly leafless. Flowers rather lar.^e, in a small 

 racemose panicle; leaves almost rigidly erect, fiat, rough, 

 somewhat pungent at the point, and on the lower part of 

 the culm very short. Corolla glume a little hairy. Mi- 

 chaux adds that it tias the habitus of Oryza. 



Species. 1. O. a^lrerifoUa. The only species hitherto 

 known, and confined to the northern mountains of Cana- 

 da and the United States, It appears to be consider- 

 ably allied to the genus Milium^ but is well distinguished 

 ' from it by the very diiferent form of the valves of the ca- 

 lyx, and the single style. Mr. Pursh remarks his having 

 i^>und it on the Broad Mountains of Pennsylvania, and 

 sa}s, that the grain it produces is large, and aflTords a fine 

 and abundant farina, deserving the attention of agricul- 

 turists. 



63. * ERIOCOMA.f (Silk-grass.) 



Calix 2-valved, 1 -flowered; valves gibbous 

 and coarctate above, longer than the corolla, 

 both 3-nerved and cuspidate. Corolla 2-valved, 

 roundish; valves coriaceous, vested with a silky 

 wool, the outer valve terminated by a short tri- 

 ' quetrous deciduous awn. Anthers bearded. Seed 

 large, somewhat spherical. 



Flowers dichotomously paniculate, peduncles flexuose, 

 capillary, and clavulate. Leaves very long, involute and 

 subulate, nodes of the culm distant, entirely sheathed. 



Stipa membranacea. Pursh, vol. ii. in Supplement, p. 

 728. 



1 . Cuspidata, C. 



Description. Root perennial; culm 2 to 3 feet high» 

 simple; panicle spreading, dichotomous, flowers by pairs, 

 peduncles capillary flexuose, clavulate at the summit. 

 Leaves very long, filiform and convolute, a little asperate 

 on the margin, (often more than a foot in length); vagina 

 half a foot, entirely sheathing the stem and the panicle 



I From e^<oy, tvooU and xoftjj, a head of hair. A grass pro- 

 ducing a fastigiate tuft of silky hair, upon the glume of the 

 corolla. 



