656 GRAMINEJE. (GRASS FAMILY.) 



1. B. oligOStachya, Torr. Glabrous, perennial (6-12' high); leaves 

 very narrow ; spikes 1-5, the rhachis glabrous; (/linnes all sparingly soft-hairy, 

 the lobes awl-pointed; sterile flower copiously villous-tufted at the summit of 

 the naked pedicel, its 3 awns equalling the larger glume. N. W. Wise, to 

 Dak., and south to Tex. and Mex. Glumes obscurely if at all papillose along 

 the keel, the middle lobe of the flowering one 2-deft at the tip. Sterile flow- 

 ers often 2, the second mostly a large awnless scale, becoming hood-like and 

 coriaceous. 



2. B. hirsilta, Lag. Tufted (8-20' high), perennial; leaves flat, lance- 

 linear, papillose-hairy or glabrous ; spikes 1 -4 ; upper empty glume hispid with 

 strong bristles from dark warty glands ; flowering glume pubescent, 3-cleft into 

 awl-pointed lobes ; sterile flower and its pedicel glabrous, the 3 atvns longer than 

 the glumes and fertile flower. Saudy plains, 111., Wise., Minn., and south- 

 westward to Mex. 



2. ATHEROPOGOX. Spikes short, numerous in a long and virgate one- 

 sided spike or raceme, spreading or reflexed, each of few (4-12) spikelets ; 

 sterile flowers neutral, rudimentari/. 



3. B. racemdsa, Lag. (PI. 9, fig. 1, 2.) Culms tufted from perennial 

 rootstocks (1 -3 high) ; sheaths often hairy ; leaves narrow ; spikes \' or less 

 in length, nearly sessile, 20-60 in number in a loose general spike (8-15' 

 long) ; flowers scabrous; glume of the fertile with 3 short awl pointed teeth; 

 sterile flower reduced to a single small awn, or mostly to 3 awns shorter than 

 the fertile flower, and 1 or 2 small or minute scales. (B. curtipendula, Gray.} 

 Dry hills and plains, southern N. Y. to Minn., and south to Tex. and Mex. 

 July- Sept. Passes by transitions into var. ARisx6sA, with spikes shorter ; 

 sterile flower of a large saccate glume, awned at the 2-cleft tip and from the 

 lateral nerves, the middle awn exserted, and with a rudiment of a palet. 111. 

 (Geyer), and southward. 



47. ELETTSINE, Gaertn. CBAB-GRASS. YARD-GRASS. (PI. 9.) 



Spikelets 2 - 6-flowered, with a terminal imperfect flower or naked rudi- 

 ment, closely imbricate-spiked on one side of a flattish rhachis ; the spikes 

 digitate. Glumes membranaceous, shorter than the flowers; flowering glume 

 and palet awnless, the glume ovate, keeled, larger than the palet. Stamens 3. 

 Pericarp (utricle) containing a loose wrinkled seed. Low annuals, with fiat 

 leaves, and flowers much as in Poa. (Name from 'EA.6i/<r/V, the town where 

 Ceres, the goddess of harvests, was worshipped.) 



E. txDiCA, Gaertn. (DOG'S-TAIL or WIRE GRASS.) (PI. 9, fig. 1 - 6.) 

 Culms ascending, flattened; spikes 2-5 (about 2' long, greenish); glumes 

 pointless; terminal flower a mere rudiment. Yards, etc., chiefly southward. 

 (Nat. from Ind. ?) 



E. ^GYPTIACA, Pers. (PI. 9, fig. 1 -4, as Dactyloctenium.) Culms often 

 creeping at base ; leaves ciliate at base ; spikes 4- 5 ; lower glume awned and 

 the flowering one pointed. (Dactyloctenium yEgyptiacum, Willd.) Culti- 

 vated fields and yards, Va., 111., and southward. (Adv. from Afr. ?) 



48. LEPTOCHLOA, Beauv. (PI. 15.) 



Spikelets 3 - many-flowered (the uppermost flower imperfect), loosely spiked 

 on one side of a long filiform rhachis; the spikes racemed. Glumes mem- 

 branaceous, keeled, rarely awned, nearly equal ; flowering glume 3-nerved. 



