638 GRAMINE^. (grass FAMILZ.) 



late peduncles, densely flowered (1-2' long), very silky with long bright white 

 hairs. (A. argyrfeus, Schultes.) — Md. to Va., near the coast, and southward. 



5. A. Elliottii, Chapm. Closely resembling the last ; sheaths and leaves 

 villous ; upper nodes of the branches densely bearded. — Md. to Fla. and Tex. 



6. A. Virginicus, L. Culm flattish below, slender (2-3° high), spar- 

 ingly short-branched above, sheaths smooth ; spikes 2 or 3 together in distant 

 appressed clusters, shorter than their sheathing bracts, weak (1' long), the spike- 

 lets loose on the filiform rhachis, the soft hairs dull white. (A. dissitiflorus, 

 Michx. A. vagiuatus. Ell., a form with larger and inflated sheaths.) — Sandy 

 soil, E, INIass. to Ya., 111., and southward. Sept., Oct. 



7. A. macrourus, Michx. Qvlm.&io\\.t {2-^° high), bushy -branched at 

 the sMm?«/^, loaded with very numerous spikes forming thick leafy clusters; 

 sheaths rough, the uppermost hairy ; flowers nearly as in the preceding ; the 

 sterile spikelet of each pair wholly wanting, its pedicel slender and very plu- 

 mose. — Low and sandy grounds, N. Y. to Va., near the coast, and southward. 



8. A. laguroides, DC. Culms slender, tall, the elongated peduncle 

 bearing numerous sessile spikes in a spike-like panicle 2-4' long; spikes 

 slender, 1' long or more, very silky; spikelets glabrous, the sterile a narrow 

 convolute empty glume. — Central Kan. to Tex. and Mex. 



^_ H_ ^_ Spikes digitate-clustered y very silky ; sterile spikelet larger than the 



fertile one. 



9. A. Hallii, Hackel. Culm stout, 2-3° high; lateral peduncles few, 

 scarcely exserted from the sheaths; spikes 2-5, 1-3' long, dense; spikelets 

 3 - 4" long. — Central Kan. to Dak., and westward. 



15. CHRYSOPOGON, Trim (PI. 14.) 



Spikelets in pairs on the ramifications of an open panicle (those at the ends 

 of the branches in threes), the lateral ones pedicellate, sterile or often reduced 

 merely to their pedicels ; only the sessile middle or terminal one fertile, its 

 glumes coriaceous or indurated, sometimes awnless ; otherwise nearly as in 

 Andropogon. Stamens 3. (Name composed of xpyo'<^Sj gold, and irdoyav, beard.) 



1. C. ntltans, Benth. (Indian Grass. Wood-Grass.) Boot perennial ; 

 culm simple (3-5° high), terete ; leaves linear-lanceolate, glaucous ; sheaths 

 smooth ; panicle narrowly oblong, crowded or loose (6-12' long) ; the perfect 

 spikelets at length drooping (yellowish or russet-brown and shining), clothed 

 especially toward the base with fawn-colored hairs, lanceolate, shorter than 

 the twisted awn ; sterile spikelets small and imperfect, deciduous, or reduced 

 to a mere plumose-hairy pedicel. (Andropogon avenaceus, Michx. Sorghum 

 nutans. Gray.) — Dry soil ; common, especially southward. 



16. PHALARIS, L. Canart-Grass. (PI. 13.) 



Spikelets crowded in a clustered or spiked panl.le, 1-flowered. Glumes 5, 

 the third and fourth reduced to mere rudiments (a scale or a pedicel), one on 

 each side, at the base of the flowering glume and palet, which are flattish, 

 awnless and shining, shorter than the equal boat-shaped and keeled persistent 

 empty glumes, finally coriaceous or cartilaginous, and closely enclosing the 

 flattened free and smooth grain. Stamens 3. — Leaves broad, mostly flat 

 i'The ancient name, from <pa\6s, shining^ alluding to the shining seed.) 



