6^S graMine^. (grass family.) 



7 - 13-flowered ; flowering fjlume oblonc], obtuse, or the scarious tip acutish, entire 

 or obscurely 3-lobed, usually rather longer than the blunt palet. — Sliallow 

 water ; common. June - Aug. 



8. G. aeutifi6ra, Torr. Spikelets 5-12-flowered, few and scattered; 

 floLcering glume oblong-lanceolate , acute, shorter than the long tapering point of the 

 palet. — Wet places, Penn. to Maine ; rather rare. June. — Resembles the 

 last; but the erect leaves smaller, the separate flowers twice the length (4" 

 long), and less nerved. 



68. PUCCINELLIA, Pari. (PI. 15.) 



Characters as in Glyceria, but the flowering glumes inconspicuously or ob 

 3oletely 5-uerved ; squamulae thin and distinct ; stigmas sessile and simply plu- 

 mose ; grain compressed, often broadly furrowed, — Mostly saline species ; 

 perennial. (Named for Prof. Benedetto Puccinelli, an Italian botanist.) 



1. P. maritima. Pari. (Goose-Grass. Sea Spear-Grass.) Root 

 stoloniftrous ; culms erect, 1 - 1^° high; leaves involute, acute or pungent ; lower 

 branches of the narrow panicle often solitarij or in pairs, appressed or more or 

 less spreading ; spikelets 3 - 6" long, oblong or linear, 4 - 9-flowered ; flower- 

 ing giumes rounded at the summit, 1^" long. (Glyceria maritima, Wahl. 

 Atropis maritima, Gnseb.) — ^Marshes along the coast ; not rare, and some- 

 what variable in the form of the panicle and size of the glumes. (Eu.) 



Var. (?) minor, Watson. Culms low and slender, from vei*y slender 

 creeping rootstocks ; leaves very narrow and involute ; ligule long : panicle 

 short and very narrow; spikelets 2-4-flowered, the flowers I" long or less. — 

 Shore of Mt. Desert Island {E. L. Rand); Labrador (./. A. Allen). — Proba- 

 bly rather a form of the w^esteru P. airoides (Poa airoides, Xutt.). 



2. P. distans, Pari. Not stoloniferous ; culms rather stout, geniculate 

 below; leaves mosthi flat, short; ligule short; lower branches of the panicle 

 in fours or fives, usually more or less naked at base, soon spreading and at 

 length deflexed ; spikelets 2 - 3" long, 3 - 6-flowered ; flowering glume trun- 

 cate-obtuse, i-1" long. (Glyceria distans, Wahl. Atropis distans, Gnseb.) 



— Salt marshes along the coast and on ballast; apparently much rarer than 

 the last, and perhaps not native. (Eu.) 



69. F E S T IT C A, L. Fescue-Grass. (PI. 10.) 



Spikelets 3 - many-flowered, panicled or racemose ; the flowers not webby 

 at base. Lower glumes unequal, mostly keeled. Flowering glumes charta- 

 ceous or almost coriaceous, roundish (not keeled) on the back, more or less 

 3 - .5-nerved, acute, pointed, or often bristle awned from the tip, rarely blunt ; 

 the palet mostly adhering at maturity to the enclosed grain. Stamens 1-3. 



— Flowers, and often the leaves, rather dry and harsh. (An ancient Latin 

 name of some kind of grass, of uncertain meaning.) 



* Flowers awl-shaped, bristle-pointed or awned from the tip; panicle contracted. 



+- Annuals or biennials, slender, .5-18' high ; leaves convolute-bristle form. 



F. MvijRUS, L. Panicle spike-like, one-sided ; spikelets about 5-flowered ; 

 lower glumes verv unequal; awn much longer than the flowering gli:me, fully 

 6" in length; stamen 1. — Dry fields, Nantucket, Mass., to Del., and south 

 ward. July. (Nat. from Eu.) 



