ORYZE^. • 177 



less, or the outer one with a straight awn, 1-10 cm. long and the 

 inner with only a short point. 



Rice feeds more people than any other grain, excepting sorghum. 



41. (45). HoMALOCENCHRUS Mieg, Hall. Hist. Stirp. Helv. 2: 201 

 (1768). False Eice. White Geass. Leersia Soland. Sw. Prod. 

 Veg. Ind. Occ. 21 (1788). Ehrhartia Wigg. Prim. Holsat. 63 

 (1780). 



Asprella Schreb. Gen. PI. 45 (1789), not Willd. 



Endodia Rafin. Neogenyt. 4 (1835). 



BrepliarocUoa Endl. Gen. PI. 1352 (1841). 



Pseudoryza Griff. Ic. PI. Asiat. t. 144 (1847). 



Laertia Gremow, Trautv. in Act. Hort. Petrop. 9: 354 (1884). 



Spikelets 1-flowered, flat, articulate on short pedicels along the 

 slender branches of a terminal panicle. Glumes 2, complicate and 

 keeled, the outer the larger, surrounded at the base by a carti- 

 laginous ring, which is often obscure; outer glume 5-nerved, 

 broadly wing-keeled or with the margins ciliate, the inner 3-nerved. 

 No 2-nerved palea. Stamens 6, 3, or fewer. Styles short, dis- 

 tinct. Grain enclosed in the slightly hardened glumes, but not 

 adherent. 



Marsh grasses, with narrow leaf -blades which quickly close when 

 warm, if briskly rubbed. The main nerve one side of the middle 

 of the blade. Pauicle terminal, slender, with erect filiform rays. 

 Spikelets smaller, more slender, and nearer together than in Oryza, 

 and in H. lenticularis almost imbricate. Nerves of the glumes 

 not very prominent. 



Six or more species, five at least common to America. Nearly 

 allied to Oryza, though having thinner glumes, a different inflo- 

 rescence, and no small outer glumes. 



The old and long-used name Leersia was first used to designate 

 a genus of mosses, and therefore should not be used for any other 

 plant. 

 Spikelets lance-oblong, 3 mm. long, scarcely imbricate. . . 1 



Spikelets oval, 5 mm. long, imbricate 2 



Spikelets broad-oval, 6 mm. long, closely imbricate 3 



