GRAMINEiE. (grass FAMILY.) 635 



sheaths; panicle strict, naked ; grain ovoid or oblong (2-3'' long), terete.-- 

 Moist suudy pine- barrens, N. J. to Fla. Sept. 



9. L E E R S I A, Swartz. White Grass. (PI. 7.) 



Flowers crowded in one-sided panicled spikes or racemes, perfect, but those 

 in the open panicles usually sterile by tlie abortion of the ovary, those enclosed 

 in the sheaths of the leaves close-fertilized in the bud and prolific. Spikelets 

 1 -flowered, flat, more or less imbricated over each other, jointed upon the short 

 pedicels. Glumes 2, chartaceous, strongly flattened laterally or conduplicate, 

 awuless, bristly-ciliate on the keels, closed, nearly equal in length, but the 

 lower much broader, enclosing the flat grain. Palet none. Stamens 1-6. 

 Stigmas feathery, the hairs branching. — Perennial marsh grasses; the flat 

 leaves, sheaths, etc., rough upward, being clothed with very minute hooked 

 prickles. (Named after John Daniel Leers, a German botanist.) 



* Spikelets narrowly oblong, rather loosely crowded. 



1. L. Virginica, Willd. (White Grass.) Panicle simple ; the spikelets 

 closely appressed on the slender branches, around which they are partly curved 

 (1|" long) ; stamens 2 (a third imperfect or wanting) ; glumes sparingly ciliate 

 (greenish-white). — Wet woods ; Maine to Minn.^ and southward. Augo 



2. L. oryzoides, Swartz. (Rice Cut-grass.) (PL 7, fig. 1-3.) Panicle 

 diffusely branched ; spikelets flat, rather spreading (2^-3" long); stamens 3; 

 glumes strongly bristly-ciliate (whitish). — Very wet places; Mass. to Minn., 

 and southward; common. Aug. (Eu.) 



* * Spikelets broadly oval, imbricately covering each other (2^-3" long). 



3. L. lentieularis, Michx. (Catch-fly Grass.) Smoothish; panicle 

 simple ; glumes very flat, strongly bristly-ciliate (said to close and catch flies) ; 

 stamens 2; otherwise like the preceding. — Low grounds, Va., HI., and 

 southward. 



10. ZIZANIA, Gronov Water or lyDiAN Rice. (PI, 7.) 



Flowers moncecious ; the staminate and pistillate both in 1-flowered spike- 

 lets in the same panicle. Glumes 2, subtended by a small cartilaginous ring, 

 herbaceo-membranaceous, convex, awnless in the sterile, the lower one tipped 

 with a straight awn in the fertile spikelets. Palet none> Stamens 6. Stig 

 mas peucil-form. — Large, often reed-like water grasses. Spikelets jointed 

 upon the club-shaped pedicels, very deciduous. (Adopted from ^i^iaViov, the 

 ancient name of some wild grain.) 



1. Z. aquatica, L. (Indian Rice. Water Oats.) (PL 7, fig. 1 -4.) 

 Annual; culms 3-9° high; leaves flat, 2-3° long, linear-lanceolate; lower 

 branches of the ample pyramidal /^aw/r/e staminate, spreading ; the upper erect, 

 pistillate; lower glume long-awned, rough; styles distinct; grain linear, slen- 

 der, 6" long. — Swampy borders of streams and in shallow water ; common, 

 especially northwestward, -^'^'^^g- 



2. Z. miliacea, Michx. Perennial; panicle diffuse, ample, the sto77imafe 

 and pistillate flowers intermixed; awns short; styles united; grain ovate. ^^ 

 Peun. (? ), Ohio, and southward. Aug. — Leaves involute- 



