Victorian Plants. 



2049. Spikelets mostly crowded along the branches of the 



panicle ... . 2050 



Spikelets all scattered ... 2052 



2050. Fruit-supporting bract beset with minute hairlets. 



Rigid, the lower portion of the stem depressed and rooting ; 

 branches elongated ; leaves mostly broadish-linear, flat, 

 prominently margined ; panicle rather short, occasionally 

 reduced to an interrupted spike ; lowest bract very small ; 

 second and third bract three- or five-streaked. 



F. margiuatum. 



Fruit-supporting bract glabrous ... ... 2051 



2051. All bracts simply acute. 



Rigid, the lower portion of the stem depressed and rooting ; 

 leaves narrow but rather flat, often beset with hairlets ; 

 spikelets obliquely ovate, turgid, glabrous or slightly 

 ciliolated ; lowest bract about one-third as long as the 

 spikelet ; second and third bract three- or five-streaked, 

 stamens in the third; fruit-supporting bract scarcely 

 smooth. F. repeiis. 



Nearly all the bracts much pointed or some awned. 

 Annual or of short duration, often diffuse or somewhat 

 prostrate ; stems rather succulent, from dwarf to very 

 long ; leaves broad-linear, flat ; leaf-stalks without any 

 membranous or ciliolar expansion at the inner end ; 

 spikes or clusters of spikelets in a dense almost uni- 

 lateral panicle, sometimes emitting awn-like hairlets ; 

 spikelets comparatively large ; bracts often rough from 

 very short rigid scattered hairlets ; lowest bract about 

 half as long as the next ; second and third bract three- or 

 five-streaked, a long awn not rar on the third bract ; 

 fruit-supporting bract smooth and very shining. 



F. Crus Galli. 



2052. Spikelets always one-fruited, the outer bract about 



half as long as the next. 



Ascendant, almost glabrous ; leaves broad -linear, flat ; 

 panicle spreading, with capillary divided branches ; spike- 

 lets dark-colored, scattered, turgidly ovate-lanceolar, 

 separately short-stalked, glabrous ; lowest bract three- 

 nerved ; second and third bract five-streaked ; fruit- 

 supporting bract smooth and shining. 



F. melananthum. 



