40 TRIANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 



7'olla coriaceous, subcylindric-ovate, 2-vaIvcd, 

 SHrroundeil at the base with a line of pubes- 

 rence, the exterior valve awned at the summit, 

 Fetnsporium 2- parted, linear. 



Culm nearly leafless. Flowers rather large, in a small 

 raceniose panicle; leaves almost rigidly erect, flat, rough, 

 somewhat pungent at the point, and on the lower part of 

 the culm very short. Corolla glume a little hairy. Mi- 

 chaux adds that it has'the habitus of Oryza. 



Species. 1. O. asperifoUa. The only species hitherto 

 known, and confined to the northern mountains of Cana- 

 da and the United States. It appears to be consider- 

 ably allied to the genus JMilium, but is well distinguished 

 from it by the very different form of the valves of the ca- 

 lyx, and the single style. Mr. Pursh remarks his having 

 found it on the Broad Mountains of Pennsylvania, and 

 says, that the grain it produces is large, and affords a fine 

 and abundant farina, deserving the attention of agricul- 

 turists. 



63. * ERlOCOMA.f (Silk-grass.) 



Calix 2-valved, 1-flowered; valves gibbous 

 and coarctate above, longer than the corolla, 

 both 3-nerved and cuspidate. Corolla 2-valved, 

 roundish; valves coriaceous, vested with a silky 

 >vooK the outer valve terminated by a short tri- 

 quL'troijs deciduous awn. Anthers bearded. Seed 

 large, somewhat splierical. 



Flowers dichotomou^ly paniculate, peduncles flexuose, 

 capillary, and clavulate. Leaves very long, involute and 

 subulate, nodes oftke culm distant, entirely sheathed. 



Stipa membranacea. Pursh, vol. ii. in Supplement, p. 

 728. 



1 . Cunpidata^ C. 



Description. Root perennial; culm 2 to 3 feet high, 

 simple; panicle spreading, dichotomous, flowers by pairs, 

 peduncles capillary flexuose, clavulate at the summit. 

 Leaves very long, filiform and convolute, a little asperate 

 on the margin, (often more than a foot in length); vagina 

 half a foot, entirely sheathing the stem and the panicle 



•j- From £^<ov, ivod, and ko/^oj, « head of hair. A grass pro- 

 ducing a fastigiate tuft of silky hair, upon the glume of the 

 corolla. 



