GRAMINE^E. (grass FAMILY.) 597 



and fourth triandrousand sterile, long-ciliate ; the floret perfect and diandrous. 

 Grain free. 



1. H. borealis, R. & S. (Sexeca Grass.) Culms erect from the 

 creeping base, l°-2° high; leaves distant, lanceolate, V-2' long; panicle 

 ovate, 2' - 4' long ; spikelets brown. — Moist ground, Statesville, North Caro- 

 lina (Hi/ams). June. 



29. ALOPECURUS, L. Foxtail Grass. 



Spikelets 1-flowered, closely crowded in a simple spike-like cylindrical pan- 

 icle. Lower glumes compressed, boat-shaped, sharply keeled, united below. 

 Fertile glume compressed, awned on the back below the middle, the upper 

 wanting. Stamens 3 Styles 2, distinct, or united below. Grain free, smooth 

 and lenticular. 



1. A. geniculatus, L. Low; culms ascending, bent at the lower 

 joints; awn longer than the obtuse hairy glume. — Wet cultivated grounds. 

 April. — Culms 6'- 12' high. Leaves 2' -4' long, with the sheaths shorter 

 than the joints. Spikes I'-l^'long. 



The Meadow Foxtail (A. pratensis, L.), a, taller species (2° -3° high), 

 with acute glumes, is scarcely spontaneous at the South. The same observa^ 

 tiou applies to the Timothy or Herd's-grass (Phleum pratense, L.), which 

 differs from Alopecurus in having two palese and awned glumes. 



30. SPOROBOLUS, R. Br. Drop-seed Grass. 



Tufted or creeping grasses, with narrow leaves, and 1-flowered awnless 

 spikelets, disposed in open, or crowded in spiked panicles. Glumes 2, membra- 

 naceous, unequal, the lower one .shorter. Floret mostly longer than the 

 glumes, and of the same texture. Stamens 3. Styles 2. 



* Grain globose, loose in the pericarp : panicle exserted: perennial, 

 •*- Panicle open, spreading. 



1. S. Domingensis, Swartz. Culms branching near the ba.se, 2° long , 

 leaves narrow-linear, roughish above, mostly hairy at the base ; panicle pim- 

 ple, the short spreading branches loosely whorled ; spikelets short-pedicelled, 

 smooth ; upper glume as long as the floret, twice as long as the lower one ; 

 palet truncate. — Wet sandy places on the Keys along the Reefs of South 

 Florida. 



2. S. junceus, Kunth. (Wire Grass.) Panicle narrow, the short and 

 spreading branches whorled ; spikelets unilateral ; glumes smooth, the upper 

 one acute, 2-3 times longer than the lower, and about equal to the obtuse 

 floret; culms (l°-2°high) erect; leaves chiefly radical, filiform and elon- 

 gated, involute, those of the culm .short and remote. — Dry pine barrens, 

 common. April - May, and often in October. 



3. S. Floridanus, Chapm. Panicle diffuse, large ; spikelets (purplish) 

 on long hair-like stalks ; glumes acute, the lower one barely shorter than the 

 obtuse floret, the upper one a third longer; leaves rather rigid, flat, pungent, 

 very rough on the edges. — Low pine barrens. Middle and West Florida. Sept. 

 — Culm 2°-4° high. Leaves P-2° long. Panicle 1°- U° long. 



