TiirANDRlA DIGYNIA. 147 



» 



awned ; the neuter on a 

 footstalk, awned j the ra 

 chis ciliate. 



istato ; neutro pedicillato 

 aristiito 5 rachi ciliata. 

 Willd. 



Mich. 1. p. 57. 



A. purpurascens, Sp. pi. 4. p 915. 



fioof perennial. Stem herbaceous, 3 feet high, very glabrous, slight- 

 ly compressed, furrowed on one side, tinned \<^ith purple. Leaves 

 hnear, one foot long, a little hairyand scabrous, channelled ; sheuths 

 liairv, compressed, contracted at the throat ; stipules membranous, cil- 

 iate. Flowers in long, slender panicles, Lateral and terminal. Spikes 

 Rolitarj, on peduncles 4 inches long; sometimes 2 or 3 spikes appear 

 to proceed out of one slieath, but they are really branches eacli bear- 

 ing its spike with its appertaining sheath ; Slieaths convolute, as long 

 as the naked peduncle, scabrous, acute, and mucronate at the summit. 

 Perfic«;rof the neutral floret as loni»; as the calyx of the fertile, hairj 



on two sides, terminated by a solitay awned valve. Calyx of the 

 hn\n. fiower two valved ; the exterior concave, 5 nerved, sca- 

 brous, fiequcnily two cleft j the interior keeled, acute, the keel ser- 

 rulate, the margins hairy. Corolla 2 valved, shorter than tlie calyx^ 

 purple ; the exterior concave, acute, with the margins hairy ; the in- 

 te'-ior hairy, two cleft at the summit, awned near the summit with a 

 scabrous awn three times its own length. Filaments 3, very short, 

 Stfjles short. Stigmas feathered, purple. Seed oblong, oval. 



Tl>e species in this section, excepting perhaps the last, form an ex- 

 tremely natural fiimily. So much so, that it becomes difficult to dis- 

 criminate the species. They cover poor pasture in the %vinter with 

 their 



coarse, dry, foliage, and are known by the common name of 



oom grass. 



Grows in dry, poor soils. Very common. 



Flowers September — October* Pnrrfh ^hidrnpogor^. 



6. Ternarius. Mich. 



A. ramis remote alter- 1 Branches remote! r al 



Jiis, tnstachyis ; spicis ternatc, tliree Sjiike 1 : 



conjugatis ; villis involu- } spikes conjugate; hair of 



^•1 gkma brevioribus ; 

 floribus triaiidns. Mich. 



*• p. 57. 



the involucrum shorter 

 than the gliunc ; fiowerf? 

 triandrous 



"ranches solitary, simple; tlie lower ones someiime<^ four spiked ; 

 ^•ye ol thft corolla villous ; the intf>rior two cl^ft. pv-Jucin?' IVora f '<* 

 wcisureajong contoited awn.' Mich. 



V»rav-^ in t' - mcMnt-uns of Carolina. Mich. 



