22 PANICACE^. 



Spikelets with 1 or rarely 2 flowers, usually in pairs, one sessile, 

 the other pedicellate along the slender continuous rachis of the 

 short branches of a long cylindrical spikelike panicle, densely silky 

 with the long hairs surrounding and seated on the spikelets. 

 Glumes 4, all thin, hyaline, and awnless, 2 outer empty ones usually 

 hairy, the third empty, or rarely enclosing a flower, smaller and 

 without hairs; terminal floral glume still smaller; palea usually 

 truncate and jagged at the top. Stamens 1-2. Styles united 

 below, distinct above. Grain small, enclosed, not adherent. 



There are 3 or 4 species widely dispersed in tropical and sub- 

 tropical regions of Europe, China, Japan and America. 



In this genus the branches of the panicle are exceptionally in- 

 articulate, approaching Tristeginege, but the long silky hairs and 

 the very much reduced floral glume and palea retain it in Andro- 

 pogoneae. 



1. I. Braziliensis Trin. Mem. Acad. St. Petersb. (6) 2 : 331 

 (1833). /. caudata Ohapm. Fl. S. States, Ed. 2, 668 (1889). 



Culms erect, terete, smooth, 30-100-130 cm. high. Ligule 

 short with long hairs at the base ; blades 10-30 cm. long, 4-8 mm. 

 wide induplicate, flrm, the upper shorter, often 3-5 cm. long. 

 The dense white woolly panicle 10-15-20 cm. long, 1.5-2 cm. 

 diam. Spikelets in pairs, densely covered with silky hairs reaching 

 1 cm. from the base, empty glumes sub-equal, about 3 mm. long, 

 the tips obtuse and ciliate, first ovate-lanceolate, and very delicately 

 5-nerved near the base, second lance-oblong and 3-nerved, third 

 glume oval, 2.5 mm. long, smooth, without nerves, delicately 

 hyaline, with a few short hairs above, fourth glume oval, about 1 

 mm. long, smootli and nerveless; joalea narrower, otherwise like 

 the fourth glume. Stamen 1. Styles united for 1 mm., then 

 distinct, about 4 mm. long. 



Mexico, Pr ingle 515. Florida, Mexico, West Indies, Brazil. 



2. I. Hookeri Rupr. ex Anderss. in CEfvers. Vet. Akad. 

 Stockh. 12 : 160 (1855). /. caudata Scribn. Bull. Torr. Club, 

 9 : 86 (1882). /. hrevifolia Vasey, Bull. Torr. Club, 13, 26 (1886). 

 By some distributions of authors incorrectly called /. arundinacea L. 



An erect glabrous perennial, 50-120 cm. high. Upper sheaths 



