PASPALUM. 195 



minal panicle, like those of milium, except that the 

 rudiment of the lowest glume is ordinarily discerni- 

 ble, and deciduous from the joint, without ripening- 

 fruit, although the flower is perfect ; the other kind 

 solitary at the extremity of slendei% runner-like radi- 

 cal peduncles (which are more or less sheathed 

 towards the base) much larger than the others, per- 

 fect and fertile, subterranean, fertilized in the bud ; 

 the enwrapping glume and similar empty palet many- 

 nerved. Flower oblong or ovoid, pointed. Stamens 

 3 — small in the radical flowers. Stigmas plumose, 

 deep purple. Grain not grooved, in the radical flow- 

 ers very large, the embryo next the lower palet. 

 Neutral palet somewhat exceeding the glume and the 

 fertile flower. 



Name from ampJiiJcarpos, a Greek word, signifying 

 doubly fruft-bearing. 



1. Amphicarpum (Double-bearing Am phicarpum). 

 Moist, sandy pine barrens New Jersey and in the 

 Southern States. Flowers in September. 



59. PASPALUM. Paspalum. 



GEIS^ERIC CIIAEACTER. 



Spikelets spiked or somewhat racemed in 2 to 4 

 rows, on one side of a flattened or filiform continu- 

 ous rhachis, jointed with their very short pedicels, 

 plano-convex, awnless, apparently only 1 -flowered, 

 as in Milium, but on the other hand differing from 

 Panicum merely in the want of the lower glume, 



