558 GRAMINE^E. (GRASS FAMILY.) 



flowers, 3-nerved on the back, not keeled, scarious-margined. Lower palea ob- 

 long, obtuse, compressed-boat-sliaped, naked, chartaceous ; the upper very thin 

 and hyaline. Stamens 3. Grain linear-oblong, not grooved. — Perennial, slen- 

 der grasses, with simple and tufted culms, and often sparsely downy sheaths, 

 flat lower leaves, and small greenish (or rarely purplish-tinged) spikelets. 

 (Named for Amos Eaton, author of a popular Manual of the Botany of the 

 United States, which was for a long time the only general work commonly 

 available for students in this country, and of several other popular treatises.) 



1. E. olbtMSata. Panicle dense and contracted, somewhat inleirupted, the 

 spikelets much crowded on the short erect branches ; upper glume rounded-obovate, 

 truncate-obtuse, rough on the back ; the flowers lance-oblong. (Aira obtusata, 

 Michx. A. truncata, Muhl. Kceleria truneata, Torr. K. paniculata, Nutt. Re- 

 boulca gracilis, Kunth, in part. R. obtusata, ed. 1. Eatonia purpurascens, 

 Raf. ?) — Dry soil, N. Penn. to Wisconsin, and southward. June, July. 



2. E. PeilBlsySvsaaiiCJB. Panicle long and slender, loose, the racemose 

 branches somewhat elongated ; upper glume obtuse or bluntly somewhat pointed ; 

 the 2 (rarely 3) flowers lanceolate. (Kceleria Pcnnsylvanica, DC. Aira mollis, 

 Muhl. Reboulca Pcnnsylvanica, ed. 1.) — Varies, with a fuller panicle, 6' -8' 

 long, with the aspect of China (var. major, Torr.) ; and, rarely, with the lower 

 palea minutely mucronate-pointed ! — Moist woods and meadows; common. 



30. MELICA, L. Melic-Grass. 



Spikelets 2 - 5-flowercd ; the 1 - 3 upper flowers imperfect and dissimilar, con- 

 volute around each other, and enwrapped by the upper fertile flower. Glumes 

 usually large, scarious-margined, convex, obtuse ; the upper 7 - 9-ncrvcd. Pale® 

 papery-membranaceous, dry and sometimes indurating with age; the lower 

 rounded or flattish on the back, 7 - many-nerved, scarious at the entire blunt 

 summit. Stamens 3. Stigmas branched-plumosc. — Leaves flat and soft. Pani- 

 cle simple or sparingly branched ; the rather large spikelets racemose-one-sided. 

 (An old name, from juc'Xi, honey.) 



1. M. iBiiatica, Walt. Panicle simple or branched ; glumes unequal, the 

 larger almost equalling the spikelet ; fertile flowers 2 ; lower palea naked, gla- 

 brous but minutely scabrous on the nerves. U (M. glabra, Michx. M. speciosa, 

 Muhl.) — Var. giAbra. (M. glabra, Pursh.) has the panicle often few-flowered 

 and rather simple, the lower palea very blunt. — Var. diffusa (M. diffusa, 

 Pursh) is taller, 2^°-4° high, with a more compound and many-flowered pani- 

 cle ; the lower palea commonly more scabrous and its tip narrower. — Rich 

 soil, W. Penn. to Wisconsin, and southward. June. 



31. GLYCERIA, R. Brown, Trin. Manna-Grass. 



Spikelets terete or flattish, several - many-flowered ; the flowers mostly early 

 deciduous by the breaking up of the rhaehis into joints, leaving the short and 

 unequal 1 -3-nerved membranaceous glumes behind. Palea? naked, of a rather 

 firm texture, nearly equal ; the lower rounded on the back, scarious (and some- 

 times obscurely toothed) at the blunt or rarely acute summit, glabrous, 5-7- 



