(GRASS FAMILY.) 597 



and fourth triaudrous and sterile, long-ciliate ; the floret perfect and diandrous. 

 Grain free. 



1. H. borealis, R. & S. (SENECA GRASS.) Culms erect from the 

 creeping base, l-2 high; leaves distant, lanceolate, l'-2' long; panicle 

 ovate, 2' - 4' long ; spikelets brown. Moist ground, Statesville, North Caro- 

 lina (Hyams). Jane. 



29. ALOPECURUS, L. FOXTAIL GRASS. 



Spikelets 1-flowered, closely crowded in a simple spike-like cylindrical pan- 

 icle. Lower glumes compressed, boat-shaped, sharply keeled, united below. 

 Fertile glume compressed, awned on the back below the middle, the upper 

 wanting. Stamens 3 Styles 2, distinct, or united below. Grain free, smooth 

 and lenticular. 



1. A. geniculatus, L. Low; culms ascending, bent at the lower 

 joints; awn longer than the obtuse hairy glume. Wet cultivated grounds. 

 April. Culms 6' -12' high. Leaves 2' -4' long, with the sheaths shorter 

 than the joints. Spikes 1'- 1|' long. 



The MEADOW FOXTAIL (A. pratensis, L.), a taller species (2 -3 high), 

 with acute glumes, is scarcely spontaneous at the South. The same observa- 

 tion applies to the TIMOTHY or HERD'S-GRASS (Phleum pratense, L.), which 

 differs from Alopecurus in having two palere and awned glumes. 



30. SPOROBOLUS, R. Br. DROP-SEED GRASS. 



Tufted or creeping grasses, with narrow leaves, and 1-flowered awnless 

 spikelets, disposed in open, or crowded in spiked panicles. Glumes 2, membra- 

 naceous, unequal, the lower one shorter. Floret mostly longer than the 

 glumes, and of the same texture. Stamens 3. Styles 2. 



* Grain globose, loose in the pericarp: panicle exserted : perennial. 

 i- Panicle open, spreading. 



1. S. Domingensis, Swartz. Culms branching near the base, 2 long , 

 leaves narrow-linear, rougliish above, mostly hairy at the base; panicle sim- 

 ple, the short spreading branches loosely whorled ; spikelets short-pedicelled, 

 smooth ; upper glume as long as the floret, twice as long as the lower one ; 

 palet truncate. Wet sandy places on the Keys along the Reefs of South 

 Florida. 



2. S. junceus, Kunth. (WiRE GRASS.) Panicle narrow, the short and 

 spreading branches whorled ; spikelets unilateral; glumes smooth, the upper 

 one acute, 2-3 times longer than the lower, and about equal to the obtuse 

 floret; culms (l-2high) erect; leaves chiefly radical, filiform and elon- 

 gated, involute, those of the culm short and remote. Dry pine barrens, 

 common. April -May, and often in October. 



3. S. Floridanus, Chapm. Panicle diffuse, large; spikelets (purplish) 

 on long hair-like stalks ; glumes acute, the lower one barely shorter than the 

 obtuse floret, the upper one a third longer; leaves rather rigid, flat, pungent, 

 very rough on the edges. Low pine barrens, Middle and West Florida. Sept. 

 Culm 2 -4 high. Leaves l-2 long. Panicle 1-!^ long. 



