856 



GRAMINEiE. (GRASS FAMILY.) 



5. P. nodosa, L. 11 Qurrdm. Qurreim. .4 to .6; root-stock creep- 

 ing; culms with 1-4, oblong nodes at base. Panicle spike-like, .05 to .08 

 long, oblong to cylindrical ; glumes lanceolate, acute, with one nerve 

 on each side of the green keel, and a narrow wing near tip gradually 

 tapering to nothing toward its base; perfect floweret villous, half as 

 long as glumes ; neuter floweret 1, linear, one-third to one-fourth as long 

 as fertile floweret — May to August — Fields; coast to middle zone of 

 mountains, and interior plains. 



* * Glumes wingless. Perennials. 



6. P. aruiidinacea, L. If .6 to 1.3; root-stock creeping; 

 culms stoutish, leafy. Panicle .1 to .25 long, branched, at first some- 

 what spreading, then more contracted ; glumes lanceolate, acuminate, 

 two-nerved on each side and keeled; perfect floweret sparingly hairy, 

 one-half to one-third as long as glumes ; neuter flowerets 2, narrowly 

 linear, less than half as long as fertile, hairy — June — Ditches and 

 banks; Hamath. 



20. AlVTHOXANTHrM, L. Vernal Grass. 



Spikelets 3-flowered, the lower two flowerets sterile, the terminal 

 perfect. Glumes 2, the lower half as long as upper, upper 3-nerved, as 

 long as floweret. Sterile floicerets consisting of 1, hirsute, keeled, 2-nerved 

 pale, bifid at tip, the back furnished with a twisted awn. Perfect 

 flowerets : lower pale not awned, rounded, enclosing the 1 -nerved, up- 

 per pale; Iodides 0; stamens 2; styles long — Annual herbs with a 

 spike-like panicle. 



A. odoratum, L. Sweet Vernal Grass. 

 .2 to .3; root fibrous; stems erect or ascending, 

 slender. Panicle spike-like, lanceolate, fawn-col- 

 ored, .02 to .03 long; glumes lanceolate, cuspidate, 

 glabrous ; sterile pales half as long as upper glume, 

 the lower with a straight awn as long as lower 

 glume, the upper with a bent awn longer than up- 

 per glume ; fertile floweret shorter than sterile — 

 April and May — Middle zone of Lebanon. 



21. CRYPSIS, L. Crypsis. 



Spikelets 1-flowered, subsessile in hemispherical to oblong heads, 

 on a disk-shaped or short-linear axis. Glumes 2, membranous, nearly 

 equal, somewhat shorter than 



floweret, with a scabrous keel. Fig. 379. 



Floweret short-stalked between the 

 glumes. Pales similar to glumes, 

 somewhat longer, the lower 1-nerv- 

 ed, the upper 3-nerved. Stamens 

 2. Styles 2, terminal, elongated- 

 Annual, tufted herbs, with heads 

 subtended by an involucre of the 

 dilated sheaths of the upper 2-4 

 leaves. 



C. aculeata, L. .05 to 

 .6; culms spreading onihe surface 

 of the ground and forming a flat- 



Spikelet 'of Authoxan- 

 thum odoratum. 4 diana. 



Heads of Crypsis aculeata. 



