BA. CLXI. GRAMINEZ, 623. 
lower branches divaricate and sterile, the upper spicate and fertile ; spikelets on 
clavate pedicels; awns long, hispid; fr. slender, 2’ long, blackish, deciduous, 
farinaceous.—?2| Inundated shores of ponds and rivers, U. 8. and Can. The 
fruit, which is very abundant, affords sustenance to wild geese, ducks, and other 
water fowls. Aug. 
2. Z. miniacea. Michx. 
St. erect, 6—10f high; lus. very long, narrow, glaucous; panicle terminal, 
large, diffuse, pyramidal; glwmes with short awns; g' and Q /is. intermixed; 
sty. 1; fr. ovate, glabrous.—2 Penn. to Car., W. to Ohio, growing in water. Aug. 
3. Z.? ruuirans. Michx. (Hydrocochloa. Palis. Hydropyrum. Kunth.) 
St. long, slender, branching, floating in the water; dvs. linear, flat; spike 
solitary, axillary, setaceous, about 4-flowered; palee@ awnless; stig. 2, very 
long ; fr. reniform.—2| Can. and N. States? July. 
60. LEPTURUS. R. Br. 
4 Gr. Aerros, slender, ovpa, tail; from the long, slender, cylindrical spike. 
Flowers o'% Q, spicate; rachis filiform, jointed, joints with one 
spikelet; glumes 1 or 2, rigid, connate with the rachis, simple or 
2-parted. i 
LL. panicuLatus. Nutt. . 
St. scarcely 1f high, compressed ; Jvs. short, rigid, sheathing the base of 
the panicle; panicle or naked rachis incurved, acutely triangular, rigid, bearing 
6—10 compressed, subulate spikes on one side, each 1—2’ long; spzkelets re- 
mote, on one side the rachis; glwmes rigidly fixed, unequal, parallel; palee 2, 
the outer of the same texture as the glumes, inner membranaceous.—Ill., Mead, 
Mo., Nuttall. 
61. TRIPSACUM. 
Gr. re8w, to grind ; application not obvious. 
§ Spikes digitate; glumes 2, coriaceous; pales 2, membrana- 
ceous. ¢ Spikelets 2-flowered, outer flower staminate, inner neuter. 
2 Spikelets 3-flowered, the 2 lateral flowers abortive; outer glume 
enclosing the flowers in a cavity of the rachis, with an aperture each 
side at base. 
T. DACTYLOIDES. Sesame Grass. 
St. slightly compressed, smooth, solid with pith, brown at the nodes, 4—6f 
high ; Wvs. near an inch broad, long, lance-linear, smooth beneath, roughish 
above ; spikes 5—8’ long, usually 2—3 together, digitate, terminal, g flowers 
above, Q below, without awns.—2| River banks and sea shores, Mid., W. and 
S. States. A large, coarse and very singular grass, Jl. 
8. monostachyon. Spike single. 
62. ZEA. 
: Gr. (aw, to live; the seeds contributing eminently to the support of life. 
¢.—d' in terminal, paniculate racemes; spikelets 2-flowered ; 
glumes 2, herbaceous, obtuse, subequal; paless membranaceous, 
awnless, obtuse. @ lateral, axillary, on aspadix enclosed in a spathe 
of numerous bracts; spikelets 2-flowered, one flower abortive; 
glumes 2, very obtuse; palezxe awnless; style 1, filiform, very long, 
pendulous ; caryopsis compressed. 
Z. Mays. Maize. Indian Corn. 
Rt. fibrous; st. erect, 5—10f (in some varieties 15—20f) high, channeled 
on one side, leafy; dvs. lance-linear, entire, 2—3f long—(@ The varieties of 
this noble plant are numerous, produced by climate and culture. It isa native 
of the warm latitudes of America, but how widely it has been cultivated on 
both continents, and how important it is to man, it is unnecessary hereto 
state. Jl. § . ; nee ee 
58 
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