652 GRAMINE^. (grass FAMtLY.) 



A. avenXceum, Beauv. Root perennial; culm 2-4° high; leaves broad 

 flat; panicle elongated; glumes scarious, very unequal. — Meadows and lots; 

 absurdly called Grass of the Andes. May -July. (Nat from Eu.) 



36. HOLCUS, L. (partly). Meadow Soft-Grass. (PI. 12.) 



Spikelets crowded in an open panicle, 2-flo\vered ; the boat-shaped membra- 

 naceous glumes enclosing and much exceeding the remotish flowers. Lower 

 flower perfect, its papery or tliin-coriaceous glume awnless and pointless ; the 

 upper flower staminate,, otherwise similar, but bearing a stout bent awn below 

 the apex. Stamens 3. Styles plumose to the base. Grain free. (A name in 

 Plinv for a kind of grass, from 6\k6s, attractive, of obscure application.) 



H. lanXtus, L. (Velvet-Grass.) Perennial, soft-downy and pale ; pan- 

 icle oblong; upper empty glume mucronate-awned under the apex; awn of 

 the staminate flower curved. — Moist meadows. June. (Nat. from Eu.) 



37. AIR A, L. Hair-Grass. 



Spikelets very small, in an open diffu:3 panicle, of 2 perfect contiguous flow- 

 ers. Glumes thin-membranaceous, the two lower persistent, nearly equal, acute, 

 keeled ; the flowering ones obscurely nerved, acutely 2-cleft at the apex, bear- 

 ing a slender twisted awn below the middle. Stamens 3. Styles plumose to 

 the base. Grain oblong, adnate. — Low annuals, with short setaceous leaves 

 (An ancient Greek name for Darnel.) 



A. CARYOPhyllea, L. Culms 5-10' high, bearing a veri/ diffuse panicle 

 of purplish and at length silvery scarious spikelets. — Dry fields, Nantucket ; 

 also Newcastle, Del., W. M. Canhy. (Nat. from Eu.) 



A. PR^ECOX, L. Culms tufted, 3-4' high ; branches of the small and dense 

 panicle appressed ; awn from below the middle of the glume. — Sandy fields, 

 N. J. to Va. ; rare. (Nat. from Eu.) 



38. DESCHAMPSIA, Beauv. (PI. 12.) 



Spikelets small, panicled, of 2 perfect flowers and the hairy pedicel or rudi 

 ment of a thkd (rarely staminate) ; rhachis hairy. Empty glumes persistent, 

 membranaceous and shining, carinate, acute, nearly equal ; flowering glumes 

 toothed or erose-denticulate at the truncate summit, usuallv delicatelv 3-5- 

 nerved, with a slender twisted awn near or below the middle. Grain oblong, 

 free. — Root perennial. (Named for Ijoiseleuv-Deslongchajnps, a French bot- 

 anist. ) 



* Empty glumes somewhat shorter than the powers. 



1. D. flexudsa, Trin. (Common Hair-Grass.) (PI. 12, fig. 1-3.) 



Culms slender, nearly naked (1-3° high) above the small tufts of involute 

 bristle-form root-leaves (1-6' long); branches of tlie small spreading panicle 

 capillary; awn longer than the palet, at length bent and twisted. (Aira flexuosa 

 L.) — Dry places ; common. June. (Eu.) 



2. D. esespitdsa, Beauv. Culm tufted (2 -4° high); leaves fat, linear ; 

 panicle pyramidal or oblong (6' long) ; aum straight, barely equalling the glume. 

 (Aira csespitosa, L.) — Shores of lakes and streams; N. Eug. to Penn., Mich., 

 and northward. June, July. (Eu.) 



* * Empty glumes longer than the flowers, 2-2^' long. 



3. D. atropurptirea, Scheele. Culms 8-15' high, weak; leaves flat, 

 /ather wide ; panicle of few spreading branches ; awn stout, twice longer than 

 *he nerveless truncate ciliolate-denticulate glume. ( A ira atropurpurea, Wahl. ) 

 — Alpine summits of N. H. and N. Y., to Lab. and northward. Aug. (Eu.) 



