632 GRAMINE^. (grass FAMILY.) 



long by Y wide), not dilated at the ciliate-bearded clasping base, smooth except 

 the margins, stronyl// 9 -ll-nerced ; panicle lony-peduncled, very sitnple, the 

 appressed branches bearing a few roundish-obovate spikelets (about 1^'' long) ; 

 lower glume ovate, acutish, ^ - 1 the length of the 9-nerved second. — Dry 

 sandy soil, Maine to Fenn., Wise, Iowa, and northward; rare. June. — Yel- 

 lowish-green ; spikelets minutely downy ; sterile flower sometimes staminate. 



12. P. latifolium, L. Culm (1-2° high) smooth; the joints and the 

 throat or margins of the otherwise smooth sheaths often bearded with soft woolly 

 hairs; leaves broadly oblong-lanceolate from a heart-clasping base (often 1' wide), 

 taper-pointed, 11 - 15-uerved, smooth, or sparingly downy-hairy; panicle more 

 or less exserted (2-3' long), usually long-peduncled, the branches spreading; 

 spikelets obovate, 1|" long, downy ; lower glume ovate, not half the length of 

 the many-nerved second; sterile flower often (not always) Avith 3 stamens. — 

 Moist thickets ; common. June - Aug. 



13. P. clandestinum, L. (PI. 13, fig. 6, 7.) Culm rigid (1-3° high), 

 very leafy to the top, at length producing appressed branches, the joints naked ; 

 sheaths rough with papillce bearing very stiff and spreading bristly hairs ; leaves 

 oblong-lanceolate from a heart-clasping base, very taper-pointed ; lateral and 

 usually also the terminal panicle more or less enclosed in the sheaths, or with 

 the terminal one at length long-peduncled; — otherwise resembling n. 12; 

 but the spikelets more ovoid, often smooth ; the lower flower (always ? ) neutral. 

 — Low thickets and river-banks, N. Eng. to Mich., ]\Io., and southward. 

 June - Sept. 



14. P. viscidum, Ell. Culms stout, upright or ascending, at length 

 much branched, leafy to the top, densely velvety-downy all over, as also the 

 sheaths, with reflexed soft and often clammy hairs, except a ring below each 

 joint; leaves likewise velvety, lanceolate [^ wide), 11 - 13-nerved ; panicle 

 spreading, the lateral ones included ; spikelets obovate, 1 or 1-J'' long, downy ; 

 the roundish lower glume scarcely one fourth the length of the 7-nerved sec- 

 ond one. — Damp soil, X. J. to Va., and southward. Aug. 



15. P. SCOparium, Lam. Culms upright, at length much branched and 

 reclining (1-2° long), roughish ; leaves lanceolate (3-5' long by i- 4' wide), 

 rather faintly 9-nerved, hairy or smooth, fringed on the whole margin or next 

 the base with long and stiff spreading hairs, the sheaths bristly throughout with 

 similar hairs ; panicle open, nearly simple, bearing feiv tumid-obovate hairy or 

 smoothish spikelets about lY' long ; lower glume roundish, about haK or a 

 quarter of the length of the upper one. (P. pauciflorum, Ell.) — Wet mead- 

 ows and copses, E. Mass. to Minn., west and southward. June, July. 



16. P. eommut^tum, Schultes. Rather slender, erect, 1-2° high, 

 nearly glabrous; leaves lanceolate, acuminate (3-6' long), the margins to- 

 ward the base and the sheaths sparsely ciliate ; panicle spreading, often short- 

 peduncled ; spikelets scattered, glabrous, oblong, acutish, little more than 1" 

 long; lower glume ovate, often acute. — N. Y. to Fla. — A frequent variety 

 with smaller spikelets (not 1" long) approaches the next, and has also been 

 confused with P. dichotomum. — Ont. to Va. and southward. 



= = Spikelets less than \" long. 



17. P. nitidum, Michx. (Lam. ?) Eesembles the last , leaves rather 

 thick and the principal nerves very obscure or none except at the base ; pan 



