1 98 GRASSES OF IOWA. 



Rapids (Shimek); Ames (Crozier, Hitchcock); Clear Lake, Cedar 

 Rapids (Hitchcock); Estherville (Cratty) ; 764 Armstrong (Pammel 

 and Cratty); Fayette (Fink); Rock Rapids (Miss Wakefield); 972 

 Armstrong (Pammel and Cratty); 471 Muscatine (Reppert) ; De- 

 catur County (Fitzpatrick) ; Mud Lake (Miss Fish) ; Rock Rapids 

 (Shimek). 



A' or/// America. New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, 

 Maine, New York, tc Carolina and Florida; west to Alabama and 

 Texas, Arkansas, Missouri (Pammel), S. Dakota (Huron, Griffith), 

 Iowa, Minnesota (Pine Creek, Pammel), Wisconsin (La Crosse, Madi- 

 son, Dead Lake, Pammel; Burlington, Parry; Pewaukee Lake, Parry) ; 

 Illinois (Bluff Lakes, Eggert; Graceland, Pammel), Ohio (Columbus, 

 Sullivant; Baltimore, Horr). 



General. From Central Siberia to Japan under the name of Z. 

 latifolia, which is nothing more than a variety of the North American 

 species. 



2. LEERSIA. 



Leersia. Swartz. Nov. Gen. Sp. PI. 21. 1788. Bentham and Hooker. 

 Gen. PI. 3: 1117. Hackel in Engler and Prantl. Nat. Pflanz. Fam. 

 II. 2: 41. 



Leersia Soland. Sw. Fl. Ind. Occ. 1: 119. Endlicher Gen. PI. 78. 



Homalocenchrus Mieg. Hall. Stirp. Helv. 2: 201. 1768. Scribner- 

 Bull. U.S. Dept. Agrl. Div Agros. 20: 50. /. 35. 1900. 



Ehrhartia Wigg. Prim. Fl. Holsat 63. 1780. 



Flowers crowded in one-sided, panicled spikes or racemes, perfect, 

 but those in the open panicle usually sterile by the abortion of the ovary. 

 Those enclosed in the sheaths of the leaves close-fertilized in the bud and 

 prolific. Spikelets 1 -flowered, flat, more or less imbricated over each 

 other, jointed upon the short pedicels. Glumes 2, chartaceous, strongly 

 flattened laterally or conduplicate, awnless, bristly-ciliate on the keels, 

 closed, nearly equal in length, but the lower much broader, enclosing the 

 flat grain. Palet none. Stamens 1-6. Stigmas feathery, the hairs 

 branching. Perennial, marsh grasses; the flat leaves, sheaths, etc., very 

 rough upward, being clothed with very minute, hooked prickles. (Named 

 after John Daniel Leers, a German botanist.) 



Species five, although some writers give the number as six. Found 

 in the warmer regions of temperate America; one species {Leersia ory- 

 zoides) , has been widely naturalized in Europe, Africa and Asia. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES OP LEERSIA. 



Spikelets oblong, their width less than | their length. 



Spikelets 2.5-3 mm. long, usually dark green L. Virginica. x 



Spikelets 4-5 mm. long, usually yellowish L. oryzoides." 



Spikelets oval, their width more than i their length L. levticularis* 



