GRAMTXEAE 387 



nodes smooth. Leaves 2 to 4 feet long, and about an inch wide, sharply scabrous 

 on the margins, striate-nerved ; midrib keeled, channelled and white above; 

 Hgule very short, ciliate. Spikes 4 to 8 inches long, when single, the pistillate 

 portion is terete, when in pairs, semi-terete as if split down. 

 Hob. Moist meadows ; Great Valley : rare. Fl. July. Fr. Sept. 



Obs. This stout and remarkable grass was at one time extolled 

 as an article of fodder, for Stock; but I think it can never take the 

 place of the present cultivated grasses. 



g 2. SPIKELETS POLYGAMOUS : Fertile spikclets with 1 perfect, and one sterile floret ; 

 lower palea of the perfect floret owned. 



508. , 



[Greek; literally Man's beard, in allusion to the hairy spikelets.] 



Spikelets 2-flowered, in pairs upon each joint of the slender raehis t 

 spiked, or racemose, one of the spikelets pedicellate and sterile, 

 often a mere rudiment, the other sessile, with the lower floret 

 neutral and of a single palea, the upper one perfect, of 2 thin hyaline 

 paleae, which are shorter than the subcoriaceous glumes. Stamens 

 1 to 3. Grain free, enveloped by the glumes and paleae. Perennials : 

 culms rigid ; nodes smooth ; spikes terminal and lateral, digitate, 

 simple, or clustered, the rachis hairy, or plumose-bearded. 



t Spikes digitate; sterile spikelets staminate (3 stamens), awnless. 



1. A. furc&tus, Muhl. Spikes hairy, often purple, usually in 

 threes or fours at the summit of the culm, in pairs on the branches. 

 FORKED ANDROPOSON. Finger-spiked Indian-Grass. 



Calm about 4 feet high, smooth, terete below, semi-terete above. Leaves 6 to 12 

 inches long; sheaths smooth; ligule obtuse, fringed. Spikes 2 to 3 inches in 

 length. 

 Hob. Slaty hills, and sterile low grounds : frequent. Fl. Aug. Fr. Sept. 



Obs. This, and all the following, are remarkably worthless 

 grasses. 



1 1 Spikes simple ; sterile spikelet neutral, the lower glume owned. 



*i. A. sfopiirius, MX. Culms paniculate above with long slender 

 branches ; spikes terminal, loose and slender, on long peduncles. 

 BROOM ANUROPOGON. Indian-Grass. Wood-Grass. 



Culm 3 or 4 feet high, rather slender, smooth, somewhat compressed ; branches 

 in lateral fascicles, sometimes in pairs, often subdivided. Leaves 6 to 12 inches 

 long; sJieatfis roughish ; ligule truncate ; spikes about 2 inches long ; rachis plano- 

 convex, pilose at the edges. 

 Hob. Sterile banks ; old fields, &c. : common. Fl. Aug. Fr. Sept. 



f ft Spikes clustered; sterile spikelet reduced to a mere plumose pedicel; fertile 

 florets monandrous. 



3. A. Virginicus, L. Culms with remote short branches above ; 

 sheaths compressed, smooth ; spikes 2 to 3, in distant appressed 

 clusters. 



VIRGINIAN ANDROPOGON. 

 Cukn about 3 feet high, smooth, sparingly branched, the brancJut partly con- 



