550 GRAMINEJE. (GRASS FAMILY.) 
The Meapow Foxrait (A. pratensis, L.), a taller species (2°-3° high), 
with acute glumes, is scarcely spontaneous at the South. The same observation 
applies to the Trmorny or Herv’s-crass (Phleum pratense, L.), which differs 
from Alopecurus in having two palez and awned glumes. 
5. SPOROBOLUS, Brown. DROP-SEED Grass. 
Tough wiry and tufted or creeping perennial grasses, with narrow leaves, and 
I-flowered awnless spikelets, disposed in open, or crowded in spiked panicles. 
Glumes 2, membranaceous, unequal, the lower one shorter. Paleæ 2, mostly 
longer than the glumes, and of the same texture. Stamens 3. Styles 2. Grain 
oval or globose, loose in the thin membranaceous pericarp, deciduous. Panicles 
exserted. 
* Panicles open. : 
1. S. junceus, Kunth. (Wrre-Grass.) Panicle narrow, the short and 
spreading branches whorled ; spikelets on one side of the branches, short-stalked ; 
glumes smooth, the upper one acute, 2-3 times longer than the lower, and about 
equal to the obtuse palez ; culms (1°-2° high) erect; leaves chiefly radical, fili- 
form and elongated, involute, those of the culm short and remote. (Agrostis 
juncea, Michx.) — Dry pine barrens, common. April and May, and often in 
October. : 
2. S. Floridanus, n. sp. Panicle diffuse, large; spikelets (purplish) on - 
long hair-like stalks; glumes acute, the lower one barely shorter than the obtuse 
palez, the upper one a third longer; leaves rather rigid, flat, pungent, very rough 
on the edges. — Low pine barrens, Middle and West Florida. September.— 
Culm 29-49 high. Leaves 19-29 long. Panicle 1? - 13? long. 
* * Panicles spiked. 
3. S. Indicus, Brown. Culms erect; panicle elongated, linear; leaves 
long, flat; paleæ twice as long as the glumes, the upper one truncated. (Agrostis 
Indica, Z.) — Waste places, Florida to North Carolina, May - Sept. — Culms 
29-39 high. Leaves with bristle-like summits, Panicle 6'~18' long, turning 
blackish. Spikelets crowded on the short appressed branches. —. 
4. S. Virginicus, Kunth. Culms treeping, short-jointed, the short and 
mostly clustered branches erect; leaves 2-ranked, soon convolute, short and 
rigid; panicle small, lanceolate; glumes nearly equal, acute, rather longer than 
the palew. (Agrostis Virginica, Z.) — Saline marshes and banks along the 
coast, Florida to North Carolina. July and Aug. — Flowering stems zn 
high. Leaves 2'-4'long. Panicle 1'-2 long, pale or purple. dE 
. 6. VILFA, Adans. Rvsn-Gnass. 
.  Psnicles contracted or spiked, more or less included in the sheaths of the 
.. Grain oblong or linear, adherent to the closely investing pericarp- 
leaves. 
