396 POACE.E. 



Bekmud Grass. Panicum Dactylon L. Sp. PL 58 (1753). Cy- 

 nodon Dactylon Pers. Syn. 1:85 (1805). Cynodon repens T)vl\q.g. 

 n. Hautes-Pyr. 76. Cynodon stellatus Willd. Hort. Berol. 90, 



Culms 10-30 cm. liigli, from hard rootstocks. Ligule and 

 sometimes sheaths ciliate; blades 3-8 cm. long. Spikes 3-5 in 

 number, 3-4 cm. long. Spikelets closely imbricated; empty 

 glumes ovate-lanceolate, nearly equal, about 1.5 mm. long, mem- 

 branous except the single nerve; floret narrowly oval, 2 mm. long; 

 floral glume comjDressed, 1-nerved; palea longer than its glume, 

 0.7 mm. wide when spread, with the nerves close together. Stig- 

 mas 1.5 mm. long, the upper half feathery. Eachilla produced 

 into a point or bristle, often minute. 



New Jersey, Scribner for U. S. Dept. Agricul. 495 ; Philadelphia, 

 Canhy ioY Dr. Clark; North Carolina, McCarthy; Florida, Curtiss 

 3446 ; Michigan, Beal 86 ; California, Jones. 



Naturalized and cultivated, seldom seeding. For a further 

 account see Vol. 1, p. 163, Fig. 75. 



84. (19). Spartina Schreb. Gen. PI. 43 (1789). Cord- or 

 Marsh-grass. Trachynotia Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 63 (1803). 



Spikelets 1-flowered, flattened, subsessile, articulate with the- 

 pedicels, arranged in rows on two sides of a triangular rachis. 

 Empty glumes compressed-keeled, unequal, acute or bristle-pointed; 

 floral glume as long as the second emj)ty glume or shorter, or longer 

 and wider; palea slender, longer than its glume, or equal to it, 

 almost hyaline. Stamens 3. Styles long, more or less united. 

 Grain included, but not adherent. 



Perennials, often maritime, with creeping rootstocks, and simple 

 culms. Sheaths smooth; blades long and tough, soon involute; 

 spikes forming an erect racemose panicle, rachis extending beyond 

 the base of the upper spikelet. 



There are 5 or 6 species and many varieties widely dispersed 

 in America, Europe, and Africa. 



Spartina has usually been placed among Chloride^e. Bentham 

 places it in Panicese, saying: " The spikelets, themselves containing 

 a single terminal flower, and the articulation of their pedicels, are 

 quite those of Paniceae, not of Chloridege." 



