358 GRASS FAMILY. 



* * Long ivhite silky down with the flowers. 



Saccharum officinarum, TRUE SUGAR-CANE: cult, far S. : rarely 

 left to flower, propagated by cuttings ; stem 8 - 20 high, l'-2' thick. ^ 



Gynfcrium arg^nteum, PAMPAS GRASS. Tall reed-like grass, from 

 S. America, planted out for ornament ; with a large tuft of rigid linear and 

 tapering recurved-spreading leaves, several feet in length ; the flowering stem 6 

 to 12 feet high, in autumn bearing an ample silvery-silky panicle. ^ 



2. Spikfleis in spikes : staminate and j>istillate separate, 

 * In the same spike, the upper part of which is staminate, the lower pistillate. 



Tripsacum dactyloides, GAMA GRASS, SESAME GIJASS. Wild in 

 moist soil from Conn. S. : proposed for fodder S. ; nutritious, but too coarse ; 

 leaves almost as large as those of Indian corn ; spikes narrow, composed of a 

 row of joints which break apart at maturity ; the fertile cylindrical, the exter- 

 nally cartilaginous spikelets immersed in the rhachis, the sterile part thinner 

 and flat. 11 



* * In different spikes. 



Z6a Mays, MAIZE, INDIAN CORN. Stem terminated by the clustered 

 slender spikes of staminate flowers (the tassel) in 2-flowercd spikelets; the pis- 

 tillate flowers in a dense and many-rowed spike borne on a short axillary branch, 

 two flowers within each pair of glumes, but the lower one neutral, the upper pis- 

 tillate, with an extremely long style, the iik. 



