GRAMINE^. (GRASS FAMILY.) 849 



6. IlflPERATA, Cyr. Imi>ekata. 



Spikelets twiu on branches of spike-like panicle, one sessile or 

 both jointed to usually unequal pedicels, each fertile, 2-flo\vcred, the 

 upper floweret perfect, the lower neuter, reduced to a pale. Glumes 

 membranous, beset with long hairs at outer face, nearly equal, niuticous, 

 longer than flowerets. Pale of neuter floweret enclosing thc^ perfect 

 floweret, and longer than it; pales of perfect floweret membranous, un- 

 equal, fimbriated at tip, muticous. Lodicles 0. Styles 2, terminal, elon- 

 gated, connate at base, stigmas feathery, exscrted. Caryopsis ovoid, gla- 

 brous, free — Perennial herbs, with a long, silky, spiked panicle. 



I. cyliiidrica, L. 2^ .4 to .8, tufted; root-stock creeping; 

 culms stiff, erect, surrounded at base by sheaths of dead leaves. Leaves 

 narrowly linear, stiff, flat, at length convolute, scabrous-margined, 

 radical numerous, cauline few. Panicle cylindrical, .08 to .15 long, .01 

 thick, branches appressed, short; glumes denticulate at tip; ''pales 

 glabrous — May — Dry and wet sandy soil ; common everywhere, even 

 in Jordan Valley, and southward to Sinai. 



7. SACCHARUM, Rcem. et Sch. Sugar Cane. 

 Spikelets twin at joints of the branches of a much-branched panicle, 



one sessile, the other pedicelled, all fertile, homogamous, 2-flowered, 

 Avith a villous involucre. Glumes 2, nearly equal, membranous, longer 

 than flowerets. Lower floweret neuter, 1-paled, orO; upper perfect, 

 pales membranous, muticous, unequal in breadth. Lodicles 2, 2-3- 

 lobed. Stamens 3. Styles 2, elongated, stigmas feathery, exserted. 

 Caryopsis free, ovate-triquetrous, with an oblong hilum — Tall herbs 

 with a silky panicle. 



S. ^gyptiacum, Willd. If Ghazzdr. 2-3 or more; culms terete, 

 .01 in diameter at base, solid, appressed-silky above. Leaves glauces- 

 'cnt, rigid,. linear, .005 to .01 broad, acuminate, grooved-keeled, with 

 a stout midrib, serrulate at margin. Panicle .5 to .G long, .06 to .1 

 broad, lanceolate, axis and nearly erect branches villous-silky; base of 

 spikelets with an involucre consisting of a ring of hairs twice as long 

 as spikelet; glumes pale-purplish, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, margin 

 long-ciliate; pales shorter than glumes, with shorter cilias — November 

 to Januai-y — Banks of ditches and streams; common throughout. 



S. officinale, L., the Sugar Cane, is extensively cultivated. 



8. ERIA^THUS, Rich. Woolly Beard-Grass. 

 Spikelets spiked in pairs or threes in each joint of the branches of 



the much-branched panicle, one sessile and the other (or 2) pedicelled, 

 all fertile, alike, 2-flowered, with villous involucre. Glumes 2, nearly 

 LMjual, longer than flowerets. Lower floweret neutral, of 1, membran- 

 ous pale, enclosing the perfect floweret, and a little longer than it. 

 Pales of perfect floweret membranous, the lower acute, produced into 

 au awn, the upper shorter and narrower, muticous. Lodicles ovate- 

 lanceolate, obliquely truncate. Stamens 2-3. Styles 2, terminal, 

 elongated, stigmas feathery. Caryopsis free, oblong, with oblong, basilar 

 hilum — Tall herbs, with thyrsoid panicle, clothed with long, silky hairs. 



1. E. Ravciinae, L. If 2 to 3; culms .008 to .01 thick at base, 

 jointed, solid. Root-leaves elongated, crowded, stem-leaves few, all 

 linear, channeled, with serrulate-scabrous margins and a thick midrib, 



110 



