TRIANDRIA. DIGTNIA. 59 



smooth and slender, scarcely contorted, and near half a 

 toot in length. This species grows very commonly on 

 the grassy plains of the Missouri, as well as the 6'. Virgi- 

 mca, and are very troublesome when in setd, adhering by 

 the pungent stipe to every thing which comes in their 

 way. 4. bicolor. {S. barbatay Mich ) Also in Brazil. 5. 

 expansa. 6. stricta. 7. *parx'iJ^orn.-\ There are now about 

 18 species of this genus, ot which 5 are Kuropean; there 

 are 2 species at the Cape of Good Hope, 1 in Siberia, 3 in 

 the warmer parts ot America, (many more probably dis- 

 covered by Humboldt an.i Bonpland), the rest exist in 

 North America and Barbary; of these the S. juncea is 

 common to this pari of Africa, Europe, and North Ame- 

 rica, the S- pm-rijlora of Burbary also grows on the plains 

 of the Missouri, and is pi obably the same plant as the S. 

 aristella of Europe. 



Not a single species of this genus is useful in agri- 

 culture. In K-urope the species are thinly scattered, 

 in Barbary and Upper Louisiana they appear in many 

 places the prevailing herbage, communicating to the de- 

 sert plains in autumn the colouring of harvest, called />a^= 

 jonalhy the American Spaniards. 



87. SACCHARUxM. L. (Sugar- Cane.) 



Flowers all herinaplirodite. — Calix with a 

 lonj^ woolly involucrum at the base, 2-valved. 



f This species is ii. ured and described by Desfntaines in 

 his Flora Atlaiitica, 1 . p 98. t. 29 as growing in Barbary. The 

 Missouri plant appears, however, to be a distinct variety, though 

 assuredly not a distinct ^pecies. 



Stem from 1 to 2 teet high, smooth. Leaves smooth* 

 sheathing the stem and the panicle, filiformly attenuated, but 

 not rigid. Panicle long, appressed, many-flowered Pedun- 

 cles filiiorm. Calix about one half longer than the corolla, 

 Glumt s compressed canna'e, partly 3-nerved, nearl}) equal, 

 abruptly and capilliar} acuminated, corolla somewhat villous, 

 sessile, or nearly without stipe, awn sr^ooth, becoming capil- 

 la<y towards the extremity, somewhat flexuose, about an inch 

 and a half long. 



Grows abundantly with the other species on the plains of 

 the Miss »uri DflTers fr< m the African plant in the leaves not 

 being rigid, and the se< ds villous, also by the capillary acumi- 

 nrtion and cfimpressiou ot the calix, and ab well as the obtuse 

 form of the seed. 



