GRAMINE^. (grass FAMILY.) 619 



•w- -w- Upper (jhimp shorter than the lower: perennials, simple-stemmed, 2° -4" hiffh. 



6. A. purpurascens, Toir. Glabrous; leaves rather involute; flowers 

 in a (10'- 18') long spiked panicle; oivns much lomjer than the flower, the middle 

 one about I' long. (A. raceinbsa, MM. A. Geyeriana, Steucl.) — Massachu- 

 setts to Michiyan, Illinois, and southward: common. 



7. A. lan^ta, Poir. Tall and stout; leaves tardily involute, ?-ow//( on the 

 upper side, rigid ; sheaths woolly ; panicle (P-2° long) spike-like or more com- 

 pound and open; middle awn (I'long) longer than tiie flower. — Salisbury, 

 Maryland, ]V. M. Canhij, and southward. 



* * Awns united below into one, jointed with the apex of ihe.palet : root annual. 



8. A. tuberculdsa, Nutt. Culm branched below (6'- 18' high), tumid 

 at the joints; panicles rigid, loose; the branches in pairs, one of them short and 

 about 2-flowered, the other elongated and several-flowered; glumes (I'long, in- 

 cluding their slender-awned tips longer than the palet; which is tipped with 

 the common stalk (about its own length) of the 3 equal divergently-bent awns 

 (l^'-2' long) twisting together at the base. — Sandy soil, E. Massachusetts to 

 New Jersey ; also Wisconsin, Illinois, and southward. 



17. SPARTINA, Schreber. Cord or Marsh Grass. (PI. 9.) 



Spikelets 1 -flowered, without a rudiment, very much flattened laterally, spiked 

 in 2 ranks on the outer side of a triangular rhachis. Glumes strongly compressed- 

 keeled, acute, or bristle-pointed, mostly rough-bristly on the keel ; the upper one 

 much larger and exceeding the pointless and awnless palets, of which the upper 

 is longest. Squamulas none. Stamens 3. Styles long, more or less united. — 

 Perennials, with simple and rigid reed-like culms, from extensively creeping 

 scaly rootstocks, racemed spikes, very smooth sheaths, and long and tough 

 leaves (whence the name, from anapTLvr], a cord, such as was made from the 

 bark of the Spai-iium or Broom.) 



* Spikelets compaclli/ imbricated, veil/ rough-hispid on the heels: spikes (2' -4' long) 

 more or less peduncted : culm and elongated leaves rigid. 



1. S. cynosuroides, Willd. (Fresh-water Cord-Grass.) Ctdm rather 

 slender (2° -6° high) ; leaves narrow (2° -4° long, ^' or less wide below), taper- 

 ing to a very slender point, keeled, flat, but quickly involute in drying, smooth 

 except the margins; spikes 5-20, scattered, spreading ; 'rhachis rough on the 

 margins ; glumes awn-pointed, especially the upper, the loioer eqwdling the lower 

 palet, whose strong rough-hispid midrib abruptly terminates below the membra- 

 nous apex. (Trachynotia cynosuroides, Michx. Liinnetis, Pers.) — Banks of 

 rivers and lakes, especially northward. Aug. — Glumes strongly serrulate-hispid 

 on the keel ; the awn of the upper one about 4' long. Palets somewhat unequal. 

 — Certainly distinct from the next, to which, in strictness, the Linna;an name 

 belongs. 



2. S. polyst^chya, Willd., Muhl. (Salt Eeep-Grass.j Culm tall and 

 stout (4° -9° high, often 1' in diameter near the base) ; leaves: bivad (}' to I'), 

 roughish underneath, as well as the margins; spikes 20- 50, Jbnning a dense oblong 

 raceme (purplish) ; glumes harelif mucronate, the lower half the length oj^ the equal 

 palets, of which the rough-hispid midrib of the lower oac reaches to the apex. 



