608 
GRAMINEiE. (GRASS FAMILY.) 
sessile, often awned; the uppermost (middle) one perfect, short- 
pedicelled, scarcely as long as the others, 2-androus, awnless.— 
Leaves linear or lanceolate, fiat. Name composed of Upos , sacred , 
and x^da, grass; these sweet-scented Grasses being strewn before 
the church-doors on saint-days, in the North of Europe.) 
1. H. borealis, Roem. & Schultes. (Vanilla or Seneca 
Grass.) Panicle somewhat one-sided, pyramidal (2'-5Mong); pe¬ 
duncles smooth; staminate flowers with the lower palea mucronate 
or bristle-pointed at or near the tip; rootstock creeping. 1J. (Holcus 
odoratus, L.) — Moist meadows, from New York northward, chiefly 
near the coast. May. — Culm l°-2° high, with short lanceolate 
leaves. Spikelets chestnut-color; the sterile flowers strongly hairy- 
fringed on the margins, and the fertile one at the tip. 
2. H. alpina, Roem. & Schultes. Panicle contracted (l f -2 ; 
long); one of the staminate flowers barely pointed or short-awned 
near the tip, the other exsertly awned from below the middle; low¬ 
est leaves very narrow. 1J. — Alpine mountain-tops, New England 
and New York, and northward. July. 
48. ANTHOXANTHUM, L. Vernal-Grass. 
Spikelets spiked-panicled, evidently 3-flowered, but the lateral 
flowers neutral, consisting merely of a narrow palea which is hairy 
on the outside and awned on the back : the central (terminal) one 
perfect, of 2 awnless paleae, 2-androus. Glumes very thin, acute, 
keeled ; the upper about as long as the flowers, twice the length 
of the lower. Squamulae none. Grain ovate, adherent to the in¬ 
closing paleae. (Name compounded of avBos, flower, and avOvv, of 
flowers. L. Phil. Bot.) 
1. A. odoratum, L. (Sweet-scented Vernal-Grass.) 
Panicle spiked (V-2 r long), the spikelets spreading (brownish or 
tinged with green) ; one of the neutral flowers bearing a bent awn 
from near its base, the other short-awned below the tip. U —^op 1 * 
ously naturalized in meadows, pastures, &c.; very sweet-scented in 
drying. May-July. 
49. PlIALiARIS, L. Canary-Grass. 
Spikelets crowded in a dense panicle, 3-flowered ; but the 2 
lower (lateral) flowers mere neutral rudiments at the base of the 
perfect one, which is flattish, awnless, of 2 shining paleae, shorter 
than the equal boat-shaped glumes, finally coriaceous and closely 
inclosing the flattened free and smooth grain. Stamens 3.— 
