GRAMINE^E. (GRASS FAMILY.) 573 



into a short and whitish 2-cleft or emarginate beak, longer than the oblong 

 acute scale. Pine barren swamps, Florida, and northward. Culms l^-2 

 high. Leaves narrowly linear, keeled, rather rigid. Perigynia occasionally 



nearly smooth. 



= = Perirji/nia smooth. 



84. C. riparia, Curtis. Sterile spikes 4-6, dark brown ; fertile spikes 

 2-3, oblong-cylindrical, sterile at the summit (l^'-2' long), on erect pedun- 

 cles ; perigynia ovate-oblong, obscurely nerved, tapering into a smooth 2-cleft 

 beak, longer than the oblong brown awned scale. Deep marshes, common. 

 Culms stout, 2 -3 high, rough above, shorter than the broad (') smooth- 

 ish and glaucous leaves and bracts. 



85. C. bullata, Schk. Sterile spikes 2 - 3, long-peduncled ; fertile spikes 

 1 - 2, oblong or oval (!' long), sessile, or on very short exserted peduncles; 

 perigynia globose-ovate, much inflated, strongly nerved, smooth and shining, 

 slender-beaked, longer than the oblong acute scale. Swamps, South Carolina, 

 and northward. Culms 1-1 high, shorter than the linear leaves and 

 bracts. 



ORDER 162. GRAMINE^E. (GRASS FAMILY.) 



Chiefly herbs. Stem (culm) mostly hollow and with closed joints 

 Leaves alternate, 2-ranked, narrow and entire. Sheaths open, or split 

 on one side, and usually prolonged into a membranaceous or fringed 

 appendage (liyula) at the base of the blade. Flowers in spiked or 

 panicled spikelets, consisting of 2-ranked imbricated bracts or scales 

 (glumes), of which the 1 or 2 lower ones are empty, the others (1 or more) 

 enclosing a smaller and thinner one (palea or pa/el), a 1-celled 1-ovnled 

 ovary, and 1- several stamens, are the flowering glumes, forming the 

 floret. Perianth none, or consisting of 2 - 3 minute hypogynous scales 

 (lo'licules). Anthers versatile, 2-cel led. Styles 2 - 3-parted, with hairy 

 or plumose stigmas. Fruit a caryopsis (grain). Embryo placed on 

 the outside and near the base of mealy albumen. Root fibrous. 



Synopsis. 



SERIES I. Spikelet jointed with the pedicel below the lowest glume. 



TRIBE I. PANICE.33. Spikelets with a single terminal perfect awnless flower, 01 

 with a second imperfect one in the glume below. Floret coriaceous in fruit. 



* Spikelets without a bristly or spiny involucre. 

 +- Spikelets in 2 - 4 rows on 1-sided lateral and terminal spikes. 



1. KEIMARIA. Glumes 2. Spikelets lanceolate, acute. Culms creeping. 



2. PASPALUM. Glumes 3. Spikelets mostly ovate or orbicular, plano-convex, in 2 4 



rows. 



3. ERIOCHLOA. Glumes 3. Spikelets lanceolate, with a callous ring at the base. 



4. OPLISMENUS. Glumes 4, the lower awned. Spikes short and distant. 



*- -i- Spikelets variously panicled (except 1 in No. 7). 



5. ANTHJ5NANTIA. Glumes 3. Spikelets alike, in a contracted panicle, villous. 



