592 
GRAMINEJE. (GRASS FAMILY.) 
the lower 7-nerved, and often with intermediate nerves, flattish- 
convolute or convex, obtuse, entire. Stamens 3. Stigmas branch- 
ed-plumose. — Leaves flat and soft. Panicle simple or sparingly 
branched; the pretty large spikelets racemose-one-sided. (An 
old name, from pfhi, honey.) 
1. M. specidsa, Muhl. Spikelets few on each branch of the 
loose panicle, smooth (<P long), with 2 perfect flowers and a stalked 
rudiment composed of 3 abortive ones; glumes and pale® very ob¬ 
tuse. If. — Rich soil, W. Penn, and Ohio. June. — Culm 3°-4° high. 
27. BRIZA, L. Quaking Grass. 
Spikelets many-flowered, ovate or heart-shaped, flattish-tumid ; 
the flowers closely imbricated, at length deciduous. Glumes 
roundish, unequal (purple). Lower palea roundish and entire, 
flattened parallel with the glumes, ventricose on the back, heart- 
shaped at the base, chartaceo-membranaceous, scarious-margined, 
many-nerved, the nerves somewhat obscure, the lateral ones clus¬ 
tered ; the upper very much smaller, ovate, flat. Stamens 3. 
Stigmas branched-plumose. Grain flattened parallel w r ith the 
paleae. — Leaves flat. Panicle loose, diffuse, with the pretty 
large and showy spikelets often drooping on delicate pedicels 
(whence the name, an ancient Greek appellation for some kind of 
grain, from fipifa, to slumber (Linn.), or fipldcQ, to bend down¬ 
wards.) 
1- B, media, L. Panicle erect, the branches spreading; spike¬ 
lets 5 - 9-flowered, heart-shaped when old (3" long). If. — Pastures, 
naturalized in E. Massachusetts and in Penn. June.—The annual 
B. maxima is sometimes cultivated for ornament. 
28. GLYCERIA, R. Brown. Manna-Grass. 
Spikelets mostly terete, several-flowered, the oblong or some¬ 
what cylindrical flowers sessile, early deciduous by the separation 
of the rachis into joints, leaving the short and rather unequal 
(chiefly 1-nerved) membranaceous glumes behind. Pale® nearly 
equal, naked, somew'hat chartaceous; the lower rounded on the 
back, usually membranaceous at the tip, strongly 7 -nerved (very 
rarely 5-nerved). Stamens 3 or 2. Stigmas decompound. Grain 
oblong. — Perennial, smooth marsh-grasses, with simple culms 
from running rootstocks, flat leaves, and nearly entire sheaths, 
