GRAMINE.f:. (grass FAMILY.) 655 



44. GYMNOPOGON, Beauv. (PI. 9.) 



Spikelets of oue perfect iluwer, and the rudiment of a second (consisting of 

 an awn-like pedicel mostly bearing a naked bristle), sessile and remotely alter- 

 nate on long filiform rays or spikes, which form a crowded naked ra<eme. 

 Glumes lance-awl shaped, keeled, almost etjual, rather longer than the mem- 

 branaceous flowering glume, wliich is cylindrical-involute, with the midrib 

 ])r()duced from just below the 2-cleft apex into a straight and slender bristle- 

 like awn; palet nearly as long, with the abortive rudiment at its base. Star 

 mens 3. Stigmas pencil-form, purple. — Root perennial. Leaves short and 

 Hat, tliickish, 1-3' long. (Name compo.sed of yv/jLuos, naked, and vuyuv, a 

 luard, alluding to the reduction of the abortive (lower to a bare awn.) 



1. G. racem6sus, Beauv. (PI. 9, fig. 1, 2.) Culms clustered from a 

 short rootstock (1° high), wiry, leafy; leaves oblong-lanceolate; spikes Jlower- 

 bearinrj to the base (5-8' long), soon divergent; awn of the abortive flower 

 shorter than its stalk, equalling the pointed glumes, not more than half the 

 length of the awn of the fertile flower. — Sandy pine-barrens, N. J. to Ya., and 

 soutlnvard. Aug., Sept. 



2. G. brevifblius, Trin. Filiform spikrs hnrj-peduncled, i. e. Jiower- 

 bcarinfj only above the middle ; flowering glume ciliate near the base, short- 

 awned ; arm of the abortive Jlower obsolete or minute; glumes acute. — Sussex 

 Co., Del., and southward. 



45. SCHEDONNARDUS, Steud. (PI. 11.) 

 Spikelets small, acuminate, 1 -flowered, appressed-sessile and scattered along 

 one side of the slender rhachis of the distant sessile and divaricately spreading 

 spikes. Empty glumes persistent, narrow, acuminate, more or less unequal, 

 the longer usually a little shorter than the rather rigid acuminate flowering 

 one. Stamens 3. Styles distinct. Grain linear. — A low slender annual, 

 branching from the base, with short narrow leaves. (Name from axf 5o*/, near, 

 and Nnrdns, from its resemblance to that genus.) 



1. S. Texanus, Steud. Stem (6-20' long) naked and curved above» 

 bearing 3- 9 racemosely disposed thread-like and triangular sj)ikes 1 -3' long; 

 spikelets 1|" long. (Lepturus paniculatus, Nutt.) — Open grounds and salt- 

 licks, 111. to :Mont., Col., and Tex. Aug. 



46. BOUTELOXJA, Lagasca. ]\rrsKfT-GR.\ss. (PI. 9.) 

 Spikelets crowded and closely sessile in 2 rows on one side of a flattened 

 rhachis, comprising one perfect flower below and one or more sterile (mostly 

 neutral) or rudimentary flowers. Glumes convex-keeled, the lower one shorter. 

 Perfect flower with the 3-nerved glume 3-toothed or cleft at the apex, the 2- 

 nerved palet 2-toothed ; Jhe teetli, at least of the former, pointed or subulate- 

 awned. Stamens 3; anthers orange-colored or red. — Kudimentary flowers 

 mostly 1-3-awned. Spikes solitary, racemed or spiked; the rhachis some- 

 what extended beyond the si)ikelets. (Named for Claudius Boutelou, a Span- 

 ish writer upon floriculture and agriculture.) 



§ 1. CHONDROSIUM. Spikes pectinate, of ven/ mam/ spikelets, oblong or 

 linear, ven/ dense, solitarij and terminal or few in a raceme ; sterile Jlowers 

 1 -3 on a short pedicel, neutral, consisting q/'I -3 scales and awns. 



