568 ORAMINE^E. (GRASS FAMILY.) 



the lowest perfect and monandrous. — Shaded rich hill-sides, S. Penn. to Illinois 

 and southward. Aug. — Culm 2° -4° high : panicle loose. 



* * Spikelets small: panicle contracted and wand-like: perfect Jloicers long-pointed. 

 3. U. gracilis, Miclix. Spikelets short-pedicelled (2" -3" long), broadly 

 wedge-shaped, acute at the base, 4-8-Jlowered: the flowers ovate and divergent- 

 ly beaked, long, the lowest one neutral. — Sandy soil, from Long Island to Vir- 

 ginia, near the coast, and southward. Aug. — Culm 3° high, slender. 



39. PHBAGMITES, Trin. Reed. 



Spikelets 3 - 7 -flowered ; the flowers rather distant, silky-villous at their base, 

 and with a conspicuous silky-bearded rhachis, all perfect and 3-androus, except 

 the lowest, which is cither neutral or with 1-3 stamens, and naked. Glumes 

 membranaceous, shorter than the flowers, lanceolate, keeled, sharp-pointed, very 

 unequal. Paleaa membranaceous, slender ; the lower narrowly awl-shaped, 

 thrice the length of the upper. Squamulje 2, large. Styles long. Grain free. 

 — Tall and stout perennials, with numerous broad leaves, and a large terminal 

 panicle, ($payp.irr]s, growing in hedges, which this aquatic Grass does not.) 



1. P. COlnasssMBiiS, Trin. Panicle loose, nodding; spikelets 3-5-flow- 

 ered ; flowers equalling the wool. ( Arundo, L. ) — Edges of ponds and swamps ; 

 common northward. Sept. — Looks like Broom-corn at a distance, 5° -12° 

 high: leaves 2' wide. (Eu.) 



40. ARUN»INABIA, Michx. Cane 



Spikelets flattened, 5- 14-flowered; the flowers somewhat separated on the 

 jointed rhachis. Glumes very small, membranaceous, the upper one larger. 

 Paleie herbaceous or somewhat membranaceous ; the lower convex on the back, 

 not keeled, many-nerved, tapering into a mucronate point or bristle. Squamulae 

 3, longer than the ovary. Stamens 3. Grain oblong, free. — Arborescent or 

 shrubby Grasses, simple or with fascicled branches, and with large spikelets in 

 panicles or racemes ; the flowers polygamous, viz. perfect and staminate. (Name 

 formed from arundo, a reed.) 



1. A. limcrosperma, Michx. Spikelets (1^'- 3' long) rather few in a 

 simple panicle, sometimes solitary on a slender peduncle ; leaves linear-lanceo- 

 late, pubescent beneath : — in the Small Cane '£'- V wide, in the Tall Canb 

 J '-2' wide. Culm of the latter sometimes 20° -35°, in cane-brakes ; but it very 

 rarely blossoms. — In rich soil, Virginia, Illinois, and southward. April. 



41. l^EFTUISUS, R. Brown. Lepturus. 



, Spikelets solitary on each joint of the filiform rhachis, and partly immersed 

 in the excavation, 1 - 2-flowered. Glumes 1-2, including the 2 thin pointless 

 palea?. Stamens 3. Grain free, oblong-linear, cylindrical. — Low and branch- 

 ing, often procumbent Grasses, chiefly annuals, with narrow leaves and slender 

 spikes (whence the name, from \s7ttqs, slender, and ovpd, tail), 



1. Li.? paniculatllS, Nutt. Stem slender (6' -20' long), naked and 

 curved above, bearing 3-9 racemosely disposed thread-like and triangular 



