848 QRAMINE^. (grass FJLMILY.) 



floweret; lower pale of staminate and fertile floweret nearly alike, 

 ovate-oblong, 5-nerved, acuminate, sliort-aristate ; upper pale of stami- 

 nate floweret bidentate — June to September — Dry rocks and hill- 

 sides ; middle mountain region from Sinai to Amanus, and northward ; 

 Aintiib; Marash. 



5. P. asperifoliuni, Desf. If .3 to .6; culms stout, leafy, sca- 

 brous. Leaves long, rigid, narrowly linear, acuminate, plicate, keeled, 

 scabrous;. mouth of sheath ciliate. Spike cylindrical, .1 to .14 long, 

 .04 to .05 in diameter to tipsoflristles^ dense; rachis scabrous, sparingly 

 hairy; pedicels bristly-hispid; involucre of many, unequal, white or 

 purplish bristles, tlirice to four times as long as 1-2 spiMets, the inner 

 somewhat connate at base, feathery; glumes hyaline, the lower ovate- 

 triangular, acute, nearly nerveless, one-third to one-fourth as long as 

 the upper ; upper oblong-lanceolate, mucronate-aristate, 3-5-nerved ; 

 neutral Jioioeret 0, or reduced to a hristle ; lower pale oblong-lanceolate, 

 3-5-nerved including the bidentate upper pale — April — Rocks; coast 

 to middle mountain zone, and interior plains ; Jordan Valley ; Dead Sea. 



4. liEERSIA, Soland. White-Grass. 



Spikelets l-flowered, often by abortion sterile, laterally compres- 

 sed. Glumes 0. Lower pale cymbiform, keeled, muticous, closed, 5- 

 ucrved, upper as long but narrower, 3-nerved. Lodicles 2, ovate, 

 membranous. Stamens 3 or 6, rarely 0. Styles 2, terminal, feathery. 

 Caryopsis obovate, flattened-laterally, with a linear hilum along almost 

 the whole ventral surface, included and slightly adherent to pales — 

 Aquatic plants, with spikelets in somewhat one-sided spikes in a thyr- 

 soid panicle, the spikelets jointed with the slender pedicel. 



L(. licxaiidra, Sw. 11 .4 to .8; root-stock creeping, stoloniferous ; 

 culms slender, rooting at base, then ascending. Leaves linear, narrow. 

 Panicle few-branched, .08 long, appressed; spikelets obliquely ovafce- 

 oblong; lower pale hirtulous, rough, the keel and margins ciliate; sta- 

 mens 6 — August and September — Marshes ; coast. 



5. TRAGUS, Hall. Tragus. 



Spikelets dorsally compressed, 2-flowered. Lower glume 0, upper 

 flat, membranous, minute. Lower floweret neuter. Fig. 372. 

 with 1, concave, 5-7-ribbed pale, enclosing the per- 

 fect floweret, the ribs echinate. Pales of perfect flower- 

 et membranous, oblong-lanceolate, the lower acute, 

 the upper obtuse. Lodicles 2, truncate. Stamens 3. 

 Ovary glabrous. Styles 2, terminal, separate, stig- 

 mas feathery, exserted. Caryopsis oblong, enclosed 

 in pales but free from them, with a dot-like hilum — 

 Spikelets 2-4, in short-pedicelled clusters, jointed 

 to the axis and deciduous together, forming a spike- 

 like raceme. Terminal spikelet often sterile. 



T. raceiiiosiis, L. .2 to .4; much-branched 

 from base; culms diffuse. Leaves rigid, flat, linear, S^^ufASosu? 

 acute, margms ciliate-scabrous, the upper with 4 diameters, 

 elongated, somewhat inflated sheaths. Raceme .06 long; pale of neutral 

 floweret .005 long, lanceolate, acute, echinate with hooked prickles at 

 ribs — September — Plain of Issus. 



