GRAMINEyE. (GRASS FAMILY.) 551 



divaricate, the lateral a little shorter than the middle one. Virginia to Illinois, 

 and south westward. Resembles small forms of the next. 



* =fc Awns united below into one, joint: d with the apex of the palea: root annual. 



7. A. tiBfoercillosa, Nutt, Culm branched below (6' -18' high), tumid 

 at the joints ; panicles rigid, loose ; the branches in pairs, one of them short and 

 about 2-flowered, the other elongated and several-flowered; glumes (!' long, in- 

 cluding their slender-awncd tips) longer than the palea; which is tipped with 

 the common stalk (about its own length) of the 3 equal divergently-bent awns 

 (I.} 7 -2' long) twisting together at the base. Sandy soil, E. Massachusetts to 

 New Jersey ; also Wisconsin, Illinois, and southward. 



16. SPARTINA, Schreber. CORD or MARSH GRASS. 



Spikelets 1-flowcred, without a rudiment, very much flattened laterally, spiked 

 in 2 ranks on the outer side of a triangular rhachis. Glumes strongly com- 

 pressed-keeled, acute, or bristle-pointed, mostly rough-bristly on the keel ; the 

 upper one much larger and exceeding the pointless and awnless palcas, of which 

 the upper is longest. Squamulai none. Stamens 3. Styles long, more or less 

 united. Perennials, with simple and rigid reed-like culms, from extensively 

 creeping scaly rootstocks, racemcd spikes, very smooth sheaths, and long and 

 tough leaves (whence the name, from o-TraprtV/;, a cord, such as was made from 

 the bark of the Spartium, or Broom). 



# Spiktlets compactly imbricated, rough-hispid on the keels: spikes more or less pedun- 

 cled: culm and leaves rigid. 



1. S. cynosuroldes, Willd. (FRESH-WATER CORD-GRASS.) Culm 

 rather slender (2 -6 high) ; leaves narrow (2 -4 long, ' or less wide below), 

 tapering to a very slender point, keeled, flat, but quickly involute in drying, 

 smooth except the margins ; spikes 5-14, scattered, spreading ; rhachis rough on 

 the margins ; f/htines awn-pointed, especially the upper, the lower equalling the lower 

 palea, whose strong rough-hispid midrib abruptly terminates below the membra- 

 nous apex. (Trachynotia cynosuroidcs, Michx. Limnetis, Pers.) Banks of 

 rivers and lakes through the interior, chiefly northward. Aug. Spikes 2' -3' 

 long, straw-color. Glumes strongly serrulate-hispid on the keel ; the awn of the 

 upper one about y long. Paleae somewhat unequal. Certainly distinct from 

 the next, to which, in strictness, the Linncean name belongs. 



2. S. polystat-liya, Willd., Muhl. (SALT REED-GRASS.) Culm taU 

 and stout (4 -9 high, often 1' in diameter near the base) ; leaves broad (' to 1'), 

 rotighish underneath, as well as the margins ; spikes 20 - 50, forming a dense oblong 

 raceme (purplish) ; glumes barely mucronate, the lower half the length of the equal 

 palece, of which the rough-hispid midrib of the lower one reaches to the apex. 

 (Trachynotia polystachya, jMichx. Dactylis cynosuroidcs, L.I in part, excl. 

 var.) Salt or brackish marshes, within tide-water, especially southward. 



3. S. juncca, Willd. (Rusn SALT-GRASS.) Culms low (l-2 high) 

 and slender; Ic-aw* narrow and rush-like, strongly involute, very smooth ; spikes 1-5, 

 on veiy short peduncles; the rhachis smooth ; glumes acute, the lower scarcely 

 the length of the upper, not half the length of the lower palea. (Dactylis pa- 



