612 
GRAMINEJE. (GRASS FAMILY.) 
(purplish); upper glume 5-nerved , longer than the neutral flower, 
which has 2 pale® and exceeds the perfect one. — Wet meadows, 
from E. Massachusetts southward. August. 
6. P. proliferum, Lam. Smooth throughout; culms thicken- 
ed, succulent , branched , and geniculate , ascending from a procumbent 
base ; sheaths flattened ; ligule ciliate ; panicles terminal and lateral, 
compound, pyramidal, the slender primary branches at length spread¬ 
ing; spikelets oppressed , lance-oval , acute (pale green), lower glume 
broad, J to 4 the length of the upper; neutral flower little longer than 
the perfect one y of a single palea. (l) — Brackish marshes and mead¬ 
ows, common along the coast. August. 
7. P. capillare, L. Culm upright , often branched at the 
base and forming a tuft; leaves and especially the flattened sheaths 
hairy; panicle pyramidal , capillary , compound and very loose (6' — 12' 
long), the slender straight branches somewhat reflexed when old; 
spikelets long) scattered on long pedicels , oblong, pointed; lower 
glume half the length of the single palea of the neutral flower , which 
is much longer than the perfect one. @ — Sandy soil and cultivated 
fields everywhere. Aug.-Sept. 
Sterile flower slaminate , of 2 palece ; lower glume nearly equalling 
it: spikelets large (nearly 2" long). 
8. P. virgatum, L. Very smooth; culms upright (3°-5° 
high); leaves very long,flat; branches of the compound loose and large 
panicle (9 , -2° long) at length spreading or drooping ; spikelets scat¬ 
tered, oval, pointed; glumes and sterile pale© pointed, usually pur¬ 
plish. 1J. —Moist sandy soil, common, especially near the coast and 
southward. August. 
9. P. a ill a rum, Ell. Nearly smooth, rigid; culms (14° high) 
sheathed to the top; leaves involute , glaucous , coriaceous , the upper¬ 
most exceeding the contracted panicle , the simple racemose branches o 
which are appressed, very smooth; spikelets ovate, pointed (pale) > 
lower glume little shorter than the sterile flower. ]J. — Sandy shores 
of Connecticut, Barratt y Robbins. September. 
* * Panicle loosely spreading , or diffuse , short. 
-H- Lower ( sterile ) floicer with a scarious {sometimes quite small ) upper 
palea , neutral , except in No. 10, and sometimes in No. 13. 
++ Culm-leaves broadly lanceolate or wider , with 9 — 15 principal nerre ^ 
10 P. latifolium, L. (excl. syn. Sloane). Culm (1°- 
high), smooth; the joints and the orifice of the throat or margins oft ie 
otherwise smooth sheaths often bearded with soft woolly hairs; leaves 
broadly oblong-lanceolate from a heart-clasping bast (often 1* wide), 
taper-pointed, 11 -15-nerved,smooth, or sparingly downy-hairy; pan¬ 
icle more or less exserted (2'-3* long), the branches spreading, 
spikelets obovate t 1J' long, downy; lower gjume ovate, not half the 
length of the many-nerved upper one; sterile flower often (but not 
