cjraminejE. (grass family.) 545 



low the pointless apex. Stamen one, opposite the 1-nerved upper palea ! Grain 

 linear-oblong, free. —A perennial, rather sweet-scented grass, with simple and 

 upright somewhat reed-like culms (2° -7° high), bearing a large compound ter- 

 minal panicle, its branches in fours or fives, broadly linear-lanceolate flat leaves 

 (k'~¥ wide), and conspicuous ligules. Spikelcts green, often purplish-tinged. 

 (Name unexplained.) 



1. C. anmdiuacea, L. — Moist woods and shaded swamps; rather 

 common, both northward and southward. July, Aug. — Panicle 6' -15' long, 

 rather dense ; the branches and pedicels spreading in flower, afterwards erect. 

 Spikelets 2^" -3" long. Awn of the palea either obsolete or exserted. 



Var. peildlila. Panicle loose and more slender, the branches nearly 

 capillary and drooping in flower ; pedicels very rough ; glumes and pales more 

 membranaceous, the former less unequal; spikelets l£"-2" long; upper palea 

 obtuse. (C. peiulula, Trin. C. latifolia, Griseb. C. expansa, Link. Blyttia 

 suaveolens, Fries.) — Deep damp woods, N. New York to Lake Superior and 

 northward, and on mountains southward. — A northern, more delicate state of 

 the last, as is shown by intermediate specimens. (Upper palea as long as the 

 lower, but shorter, as figured in Anders. Gram. Scand., only not with 3 stamens, 

 but monandrous, both in American specimens and in Norwegian, given in Fries, 

 Herb. Norm.) (Eu.) 



10. MIHLEIVBERGIA, Schreber. Drop-seed Grass. 



Spikelets 1 -flowered, in contracted or rarely open panicles. Glumes mostly 

 acute or bristle-pointed, persistent ; the lower rather smaller or minute. Flower 

 very short-stalked or sessile in the glumes ; the paleae usually hairy-bearded at 

 the base, herbaceous, deciduous with the enclosed grain, often equal ; the lower 

 3-nerved, mucronate or awned at the apex. Stamens 3. (Dedicated to the 

 Rev. Dr. Muhlenberg, a distinguished American botanist.) 



§ 1. MUHLENBERG1A Proper. — Panicles contracted or glomerate, terminal 

 and axillary: perennials (in our species) with branching rigid culms, from scaly 

 creeping rootstoclcs : leaves short and narrow. 

 * Lower palea barely mucronate or sharp-pointed. (Sp. of Cinna, Kunth, Trin.) 



1. M. sobolifera. Culms ascending (l°-2° high), sparingly branched ; 

 the simple contracted panicle very slender or filiform ; glumes barely pointed, almost 

 equal, £ shorter than the equal palea, ; lower palea abruptly short-mucronate. 

 (Agrostis sobolifera, Muhl.) — Open rocky woods, Vermont to Michigan, Illi- 

 nois, and southward. Aug. — Spikelets less than 1" long. 



2. M. g!o«lierata, Trin. Culms upright (l°-2° high), sparingly 

 branched or simple ; panicle oblong-linear, contracted into an interrupted glomerate 

 spike, long-peduncled, the branches sessile ; glumes awned, nearly equal, and 

 (with the bristle-like awn) about twice the length of the unequal very acute 

 palea;. (Agr. racemosa, Michx. A. setosa, Muhl. Polypogon racemosus, Nutt.) 

 Bogs, &c. ; common, especially northward. Aug. — Panicle 2' - 3' long. 



3. M. Mexicana, Trin. Culms ascending, much branched (2 C -3° 

 hio-h) ; panicles lateral and termiual, often included at the base, contracted, the 



46* 



