POACEAE. 



35 



1. Bromus unioloides (Willd.) 

 H.B.K. Southern Chess. (Fig. 

 52.) Annual. Culms l^°-3*° tall: 

 leaf-sheaths commonly pubescent, 

 or sometimes glabrous; blades 

 rough, sometimes sparingly pubes- 

 cent, 2"-3" wide; panicle usually 

 long and narrow, 6'-20' long: 

 spikelets 8"-17" long, 7-11-flow- 

 ered, the flowering scales thick, 

 firm, 6"-8" long, each commonly 

 with a short stout awn. [Poa 

 unioloides Willd.] 



Locally plentiful in fields and 

 on hillsides. Naturalized. Native of 

 warm-temperate America. Flowers 

 in spring and summer. 



25. SPARTINA Schreb. 



Perennial glabrous grasses, 

 with long horizontal rootstocks, 

 flat or involute leaves, and an in- 

 florescence of one-sided spreading 

 or erect alternate spikes. Spike- 

 lets 1-flowered, narrow, deciduous, 

 borne in two rows on the rachis, 

 articulated with the very short pedicels below the scales. Scales 3; the 

 two outer empty, keeled, very unequal; the third subtending a perfect 

 flower, keeled, equalling or shorter than the second; palet often longer 

 than its scale, 2-nerved. Stamens 3. Styles filiform, elongated. Stigmas fili- 

 form, papillose or shortly plumose. Grain free. [Greek, referring to the cord- 

 like leaves of some species.] About 7 species, widely distributed in saline soil, 

 a few in fresh-water marshes. Type species: Spcrtina Schreheri Gmel. 



1. Spartina patens (Ait.) Muhl. 

 Salt Grass. (Fig. 53.) Culms r-4° 

 tall, erect, or decumbent at base, smooth. 

 Leaves 6'-25° long, l"-2" broad, invo- 

 lute, attenuate into a long tip, smooth 

 and glabrous beneath; spikes 2-10, l'-2' 

 long, usually ascending, more or less 

 peduncled, the rachis slightly scabrous; 

 spikelets 3"-4" long; outer scales acute, 

 scabrous-hispid on the keel, the first 

 usually rather less than one half as long 

 as the second; third scale scabrous on the 

 upper part, emarginate or 2-toothe(l at 

 the apex, longer than the first and ex- 

 ceeded by the palet. {Da^'tifUs patens 

 Ait.; Spartina juncea Willd.] 



Rocky and sandy coasts. South Shores 

 and along Castle Harbor, very abundant on 

 liushy Island, and about Ely's Harbor. 

 Native. Coast of eastern North America. 

 I'robably transported to Bermuda by float- 

 ing. Flowers in summer and autumn. 

 Erroneously recorded by Reade and by 

 Moore as S. cynosuroides. 



