TRIANDRIA. DIGTNIA. 59 



smooth and slender, scarcely contorted, and near half a 

 foot in leng-th. This species grows very Commonly on 

 the grassy plains of the Missouri, as well as the S. Virgi- 

 nica, and are very troublesome when in set-d, adhering by 

 the pun.uen! stipe to every thing which comes in tneir 

 way. 4. licohr. (S. barbata, Mich ) Also in Brazil. 5. 

 erc'pansa. 6. siricta. 7. *purvifcOra.\ There are now about 

 18 species of this genus, of wliich 5 are FAiropean; there 

 are 2 species at the Cape ot Good Hope, 1 in Siberia, 3 in 

 the warmer parts of America, (many more probably dis- 

 covered by Humboldt and Bonpland), the rest exist in 

 North America and Barbar} ; of these the 5. juncea is 

 common to this part of Atiica, Em-ope, and .North Ame- 

 rica, the S parvifora of B^rbary aiso grows on the plains 

 of the Miss'iuri, and is piobably the same plant as the S, 

 om?e/to of Europe. 



Not a single species of this genus is .useful in agri- 

 culture. In Europe the species are thinly scattered, 

 in Barbary and Upper Louisiana they appear in many 

 places the prevailing herbage, communicating to the de- 

 sert plains in au*umn the colouring of harvest, called /^a^'- 

 jonalhy the American Spaniards. 



%7, SACCH.\RUxM. L. (Sugar Cane.) 



Flowers ail hermaphrodite. — Calix with a 

 lon,^ woolly involurnini at the base, 2-valved. 



f This species is fi ured and described by Desfmtaines in 

 his Flora Atlantica, l.p. 98. t. 29 as growing in Barbary. The 

 Missouri plant appears, however, to be a distinct variety, though 

 assuredly not a distinct .-pecies. 



Stem from 1 to 2 teet high, smooth. Leaves smooth, 

 sheathing the stem and the panicle, fihformly attenuated, but 

 not rigid. Panicle long, appressed, many-fiowered Pedun- 

 cles filiiorm. Calix about one half longer than the corolla. 

 Glumt s compressed carinate, partly 3-nerved, nt aily equal, 

 abruptly and capiUiary acuminated, corolla son ewhat villous, 

 sessile, or nearly without stipe, awn snooth, becoming capil- 

 lary towards the extremity, somewhat flexuose. about an inch 

 and a half long. 



Grows nbundantly with the other species on the plains of 

 the M.ssuuri. D ffers frcm the African plant in the leaves not 

 being rigid, and the seeds villous, also by the capillary acumi- 

 nution and compression of the caiix, and a» well as the obtuse 

 form of the seed. 



