66 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



Stout reed, often 10 meters tall, with culms clothed below with old sheaths 

 (the blades having fallen), sharply serrulate blades, commonly 2 meters long 

 and 4 to 6 cm. wide (forming a great fan-shaped summit to the sterile culms), 

 and pale, plumy, densely flowered panicles 1 meter long or more, the main axis 

 erect, the branches drooping. " Cana brava " (Tabasco, Rovirosa) ; " caria de 

 casa " (Guatemala); "cana boba," " suza " (Colombia); " caiia de Castilla " 

 (El Salvador, Cuba). 



2. ARUNDO L. Sp. PI. 81. 1753. 

 1. Arundo donax L. Sp. PI. 81. 1753. 



Along rivers and ditches throughout Mexico. Warmer parts of the Old 

 World ; cultivated in America for ornament and occurring from Texas to 

 California and southward to South America as an escape. 



A tall reed with strong, sparingly branching culms, elongate scabrous-mar- 

 gined flat blades, and densely flowered, slightly drooping panicles 30 to 60 cm. 

 long, the spikelets about 1 cm. long. " Carrizo " (Durango, etc.); "cana 

 hueca," " caiiaveral " (Ramirez); " carricillo (Tamaulipas) ; " giiin " (Cuba). 



Tender stems eaten by animals; canes used for fishing rods, arrows, and 

 flutes. 



3. OLYRA L. Syst. Nat. ed. 10. 2: 1261. 1759. 

 1. Olyra latifolia L. Syst. Nat. ed. 10. 2: 1261. 1759. 



Copses and shady banks, San Luis PotosI to Michoacfl,n and southward. 

 Mexico and West Indies to South America, the type from Jamaica. 



Glabrous perennial, bamboo-like in aspect, commonly 5 meters tall, the 

 strong hollow culms sometimes 1 cm. thick, erect and unsupported, the summit 

 only arching (or weaker culms leaning among brush), the lower half to two- 

 thirds simple and naked, the short sheaths bladeless or nearly so, the elongate 

 internodes blotched with dull purple, branching from the upper nodes, the 

 branches commonly fascicled, divaricate, often 1 meter long, sometimes again 

 branching; blades convolute in the bud, spreading, flat, firm, asymmetrically 

 lanceolate-oblong, abruptly acuminate, commonly 20 cm. long and 5 cm. wide, 

 those of the ultimate branches smaller, the lowermost on both primary culm 

 and branches rudimentary ; panicles 10 to 15 cm. long, about two-thirds as wide, 

 those of the secondary branches reduced, the branches stiffly ascending or 

 spreading, each bearing a single large long-acuminate pistillate spikelet at the 

 thickened summit and several small slender-pediceled staminate spikelets along 

 the rachis. "TibisI" (Cuba). 



4. LASIACIS (Griseb.) Hitchc. Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 15: 16. 1910. 



The clambering species are known in Cuba as " tibisl." 

 Main stem prostrate, the fertile shoots prostrate, ascending, or erect. 



Blades lanceolate, mostly less than 5 cm. long; fertile shoots strongly dorsi- 

 ventral, mostly prostrate 1. L. rugelii. 



Blades linear-lanceolate, about 10 to 12 cm. long; fertile shoots ascending or 



erect from a decumbent base, not dorsiventral 2. L. grisebachii. 



Main stem clambering, or much branched and forming a tangled mass. 



Ligule noticeable, brownish, about 2 mm. long. Blades scabrous on both 

 surfaces, elongate, more than 10 times as long as wide; plants not form- 

 ing a strong central clambering cane 3. L. oaxacensis. 



Ligule inconspicuous, hidden within the mouth of the sheath, rarely as much 

 as 1 mm. long. 



