544 graminejE. (grass family.) 



4. A. canina, L. (Brown Bent-Grass.) Culms slender (1°- 2° high); 

 root-leaves involute-bristle-form, those of the culm flat and broader, linear ; 

 branches of the short and loose erect-spreading panicle slender, branching abovo 

 the middle ; lower palea a little shorter than the almost equal glumes, bearing a 

 long (at length bent or somewhat twisted) awn on the back a little below the middle, 

 the upper one minute and inconspicuous (only half the length of the ovary); 

 spikelets greenish, turning brown or purplish, about 1" long. y. — Meadows, 

 &c, E. New England : scarce. (Nat. from Eu.) 



Var. salpina, Oakes (var.? tcnella, Ton:; A. rubra, L., ed. 1.; A. Picker- 

 ingii & A. concinna, Tuckerm.), is a lower, often contracted mountain form, with 

 spikelets l£" long. Mountain-tops, Maine to New York. July, Aug. (Eu.) 



§ 2. AGROSTIS Proper. — Upper palea manifest, but shorter than the lower. 



5. A. vulgaris, With. (Red-top. Herd's-Grass of Penn., &c.) 

 Rootstocks creeping; culm mostly upright (l°-2°high); panicle oblong, with 

 spreading slightly rough short branches (purple) ; leaves linear; ligule very short, 

 truncate ; lower palea nearly equalling the glumes, chiefly awnless, 3-nervcd ; 

 the upper about one half its length, y. (A. polymorpha, Huds. partly. — Varies 

 with a rougher panicle (A. hispida, Willd,), and rarely with the flower awned 

 (A. pumila, L.) — Low meadows ; naturalized from Eu. Also native in North- 

 ern New York and northward. (Eu.) 



6. A. Alba, L. (White Bent-Grass.) Culm ascending, rooting at the 

 lower joints (l°-2° high) ; panicle narrow, contracted after flowering (greenish- 

 white or barely tinged with purple), the branches rough; ligule oblong or linear; 

 lower palea rather shorter than the glumes, 5-nerved, awnless, or rarely short- 

 awned on the back ; otherwise as in the last. 1J. — Varies with the panicle 

 more contracted (A. stolonifera, L., Florin Grass) ; and var. aristAta, with 

 the lower palea long-awned from near its base. (A. stricta, Willd.) — Moist; 

 meadows and fields. A valuable grass, like the foregoing. (Nat. from Eu.) 



8. POLYPOCSOIV, Desf. Beard-Grass. 



Spikelets 1-flowered, in a contracted somewhat spike-like panicle. Glumes 

 nearly equal, long-awned, much longer than the membranaceous palese, the lower 

 of which is commonly short-awned below the apex. Stamens 3. Grain free. 

 {Name composed of ttoAu, much, and 7r<o-yc«>j>, beard; from the awns.) 



1. P. Moxspeliensis, Desf. Panicle interrupted ; glumes oblong, the awn 

 from a shallow notch at the summit; lower palea awned. (T — On the coast. 

 Isle of Shoals, New Hampshire (Oakes 8r Robbins), Virginia'? and southward. 

 (Nat. from Eu.) 



9. CINWA, L. Wood Reed-Grass. 



Spikelets 1 -flowered, much flattened, crowded in an open flaccid panicle. 

 Glumes lanceolate, acute, strongly keeled, hispid-serrulate on the keel ; the lower 

 rather smaller, the upper a little exceeding the palese. Flower manifestly 

 stalked in the glumes, smooth and naked ; the palese much like the glumes ; 

 the lower longer than the upper, short-awned or bristle-pointed on the back be- 



