656 GRAMINEiE. (GRASS FAMILY.) 



1. B. oligOStachya, Ton-. Glabrous, perennial (6-12' high); leaves 

 very narrow ; spikes 1 - 5, the rhachis glabrous; glumes all sparingli/ soft-hairy, 

 the lobes awl-pointed; ster He flower copiously villous-tufted at the summit of 

 the naked pedicel, its 3 awns equalling the larger glume. — N. W. Wise, to 

 Dak., and south to Tex. and Mex. — Glumes obscurely if at all papillose along 

 the keel, the middle lobe of the flowering one 2-cleft at the tip. Sterile flow- 

 ers often 2, the second mostly a large awnless scale, becoming hood-like and 

 coriaceous. 



2. B. hirsilta, Lag. Tufted (8-20' high), perennial; leaves flat, I ance- 

 Unear, papilluse-hairy or glabrous ; spikes 1 -4 ; upper empty glume hispid with 

 strong bristles /ro??i dark warty glands ; flowering glume pubescent, 3-cleft into 

 awl-pointed lobes ; sterile flower and its pedicel glabrous, the 3 awns longer than 

 the glumes and fertile flower. — Sandy plains, 111., Wise, Minn., and south- 

 westward to Mex. 



§ 2. ATHEROPOGOX. Spikes short, numerous in a long and virgate one- 

 sided spike or raceme, spreading or reflexed, each of few (4- 12) spikelets ; 

 sterile flowers neutral, rudimentary. 



3. B. racerabsa, Lag. (PI. 9, fig. 1, 2.) Culms tufted from perennial 

 rootstocks (1-3° high) ; sheaths often hairy ; leaves narrow ; spikes ^ oi' less 

 in length, nearly sessile, 20 - 60 in number in a loose general spike (8-15' 

 long) ; flowers scabrous ; glume of the fertile with 3 short awl-pointed teeth ; 

 sterile flower reduced to a single small awn, or mostly to 3 awns shorter than 

 the fertile flower, and I or 2 small or minute scales. (B. curtipendula. Gray.) 

 — Dry hills and plains, southern N. Y. to Minn., and south to Tex. and Mex. 

 Julv-Sept. — Passes by transitions into var. arist6sa, with spikes shorter; 

 sterile flower of a large saccate glume, awned at the 2-cleft tip and from the 

 literal nerves, the middle awn exserted, and with a rudiment of a palet. — 111. 

 (Geyer), and southward. 



47. ELEUSINE, Gaertu. Ckab-Grass. Yard-Grass. (PI. 9.) 



Spikelets 2 - 6-flowered, with a terminal imperfect flower or naked rudi- 

 ment, closely imbricate-spiked on one side of a flattish rhachis ; the spikes 

 digitate. Glumes membranaceous, shorter than the flowers ; flowering glume 

 and palet awnless, the glume ovate, keeled, larger than the palet. Stamens 3. 

 Pericarp (utricle) containing a loose wrinkled seed. — Low annuals, with flat 

 leaves, and flowers much as in Poa. (Name from 'E\evaiv, the town where 

 Ceres, the goddess of harvests, was worshipped.) 



E. IxDiCA, Gaertn. (Dog's-tail or AVire Grass.) (PI. 9, fig. 1-6.) 

 Culms ascending, flattened; spikes 2-5 (about 2' long, greenish); glumes 

 pointless; terminal flower a mere rudiment. — Yards, etc., chiefly southward. 

 (Nat. from Ind. ?) 



E. ^GYPTiACA, Pers. (PI. 9, fig. 1-4, as Dactyloctenium.) Culms often 

 creeping at base ; leaves ciliate at base ; spikes 4 - 5 ; ^OAver glume awned and 

 the flowering one pointed. (Dactyloctenium iEgyptiacum, Willd.) — Culti- 

 vated fields and yards, Va., 111., and southward. (Adv. from Afr. 1 j 



48. LEPTOCHLOA, Beauv. (PI. 15.) 



Spikelets 3 - many-flowered (the uppermost flower imperfect), loosely spiked 

 on one side of a long filiform rhachis ; the spikes racemed. Glumes mem- 

 branaceous, keeled, rarely awned, nearly equal ; flowering glume 3-nerved 



