TRIANDRIA. DIGYNIA. 43 



66. LEERSIA. Swart^, (Rice-grass.) 



Calix 0. Corolla 2-valved, closed: valves 

 compressed, boat-sliaped, without awns. (Sta- 

 tnens 1, 2, 3, and 6.) 



Flowers in appressed or spreading- panicles, alternate 

 and nearly sessile; receptacle of the g'lume concave and 

 somewhat margined; glumes of the corolla apparently 

 growing together after flowering. Leaves more or less 

 scabrous; in the L- Virginica the channels betwixt the 

 strixof the leaves are thickly set with sliort hooked pri- 

 des, extremely acute and tenaceous, but most conspicu- 

 ous upon the shea'.hes. This genus is verv considerably 

 allied to Oryza; it does not even altogether differ in the 

 number of siami. ns, there being in Jamaica an hexandi'ous 

 species of Leersiuy there is also a bifid perisponum (or 

 nectary) in this genus as well as in Oryza, their inflores- 

 cence and glumes are of the same remarkable character; 

 but the Oryza is furnished with a short chaffy acute calix, 

 not, however, one third the length of the coriaceous 

 glumes, and is described as being furnished wit h an awn, 

 though none cultivated in America ever produce it, and 

 some rice also which I have seen from India considered 

 as spontaneous was equally destitute of awns- It is pro- 

 bable, as Loureiro imagines, that the awned rice is a dis- 

 tinct species. In Tournefor's Institutes there is a figure 

 ef a panicle of rice with awns as long almost as a Stipa. 



Species. 1. L. Virginica. 2. lendcidaris. 3. oryzoides. 

 Besides these 3 species there are 2 others in Jamaica, 

 and another in New Holland so nearly allied to the O. 

 liexar.dra, thav Mr. Brown scarcely conceives them dis- 

 tinct. The valves of the O. lenticnlaris are said to 

 possess a degree of irniability, and retain small insects; 

 it is more probably the singular construction of the corol- 

 la which produces this phenomenon; the insect venturing 

 too far is retained as in a trap by the proboscis, and the 

 hooked ciliatures of the valves, assist in ensnaring the in- 

 truder. 



^7. MILIUM. Z. (Millet-grass.) 



Calix 2-valved, 1 -flowered, tumid. Corolla 

 2-valved, much shorter than the calix, with op 

 without an awn. Stigmas plumose or villous. 



Flowers paniculate (or spiked.) This genus is scarcely 

 distinct from AgrosHsi if it possess any distinguishing 



