6t)B GRAMINE.E. (GRASS FAMILY.) 



7 - 13- flowered ; flowering glume oblong, obtuse, or the scarious tip acntish, entire 

 or obscurely 3-lobed, usually rather longer than the blunt palet. — Shallow 

 water; common. June -Aug. 



8. G. acutifl6ra, Torr. Spikelets 5-12-flowered, few and scattered; 

 fioivering glume oblong -lanceolate, acute, shorter than the long tapering point of the 

 palet. — Wet placets, Penn. to Maine; rather rare. June. — Resembles the 

 last; but the erect leaves smaller, the separate flow^ers twice the length (4" 

 long), and less nerved. 



68. PUCCINELLIA, Pari. (PL 15.) 



Charact^ers as in Glyceria, but the flowering glumes inconspicuously or ob- 

 soletely 5-nerved ; squamulas thin and distinct ; stigmas sessile and simply plu- 

 mose; grain compressed, often broadly furrowed. — Mostly saline species; 

 perennial. (Named for Prof. Benedetto Puccinelli, an Italian botanist.) 



1. P. maritima. Pari. (Goose-Grass. Sea Spear-Grass.) Root 

 stoloniferous ; culms erect, 1 - 1^° high; leaves involute, acute or pungent ; lower 

 branches of the narrow panicle often solitary or in pairs, oppressed or more or 

 less spreading ; spikelets 3 - 6" long, oblong or linear, 4 - 9-floAvered ; flower- 

 ing glqmes rounded at the summit, 1^" long. (Glyceria maritima, Wahl. 

 Atropis maritima, Griseb.) — Marshes along the coast; not rare, and some- 

 what variable in the form of the panicle and size of the glumes. (Eu.) 



Var. (?) minor, Watson. Culms low and slender, from very slender 

 creeping rootstocks ; leaves very narrow and involute ; ligule long ; panicle 

 short and very narrow; spikelets 2 - 4-floAvered, the flowers \" long or less. — 

 Shore of Mt. Desert Island {E. L. Rand); Labrador {J. A. Allen). — Froha- 

 bly rather a form of the western P. airoides (Poa airoides, Nutt.). 



2. P. distans. Pari. Not stoloniferous; culms rather stout, geniculate 

 below; leaves mostlg flat, short; ligule short; lower branches of the panicle 

 in fours or fives, usually more or less naked at base, soon spreading and at 

 length deflexed; spikelets 2 - 3" long, 3 - 6-flowered ; flowering glume trun- 

 cate-obtuse, ^-1" long. (Glyceria distans, WaU. Atropis distans, Griseb.) 



— Salt marshes along the coast and on ballast; apparently much rarer than 

 the last, and perhaps not native. (En.) 



«9. F E S T IT C A, L. Fescue-Grass. (PI. 10.) 



Spikelets 3 -many-flowered, panicled or racemose; the flowers not webby 

 at base. Lower glumes unequal, mostly keeled. Flowering glumes charta- 

 ceous or almost coriaceous, roundish (not keeled) on the back, more or less 

 3 - .5-nerved, acute, pointed, or often bristle-awned from the tip, rarely blunt ; 

 the palet mostly adhering at maturity to the enclosed grain. Stamens 1-3. 



— Flowers, and often the leaves, rather dry and harsh. (An ancient Latin 

 name of some kind of grass, of uncertain meaning.) 



* Flowers awl-shaped, bristle-pointed or aivned from the tip; panicle contracted. 



-»- Annuals or biennials, slender, 5-18' high ; leaves convolute-bristle-form. 



"F. MvtTRUs, L. Panicle spike-like, one sided ; spikelets about 5-flowered; 

 lower glumes \ ery unequal ; awn much longer than the flowering glume, fully 

 6" in length ; stamen 1 . — Dry fields, Nantucket, Mass., to l^el., and south- 

 ward. J<4y- (Nat. from Eu.) 



