644 GRAMINE.E. (GRASS FAMILY.) 



slightly unequal, short-pointed, half the length of the flowering one, which bears 

 an awn 3-4 times the length of the spikelet. Rocky woods ; rather com- 

 mon. Aug. 



7. M. diffusa, Schreber. (DROP-SEED. NIMBLE WILL.) (PI. 8, fig. 

 3-5.) Culms diffusely much branched (8-18' high); contracted pan ides 

 slender, rather loosely many-flowered, terminal and lateral ; empty glumes 

 extremely minute, the lower obsolete, the upper truncate ; awn once or twice 

 longer than the flowering glume. Dry hills and woods, from S. New Eng. 

 to Mich., Iowa, and southward. Aug., Sept. Spikelets only 1" long. 



2. TRICHOCHLOA. Panicle very loose and open, the long branches and 

 pedicels capillary ; leaves narrow, often convolute-bristle-form. 



8. M. capillaris, Kunth. (HAIR-GRASS.) Culm simple, upright (2 

 high) from a fibrous root ; panicle capillary, expanding (6 - 20' long, purple) ; 

 empty glumes unequal, the lower mostly pointless, the upper more or less 

 bristle-pointed, one third or half the length of the long-awned flowering glume. 

 Sandy soil, W. New Eng. to N. J., Ky., Mo., and southward. Sept. 

 Pedicels 1-2' long, scarcely thicker than the awns, which are about 1' long. 



24. BRACHYELYTRUM, Beauv. (PI. 8.) 



Spikelets 1 -flowered, with a conspicuous filiform pedicel of an abortive sec* 

 ond flower about half its length, nearly terete, few, in a simple appressed ra- 

 cemed panicle. Lower glumes unequal, persistent, usually minute, or the 

 lower one almost obsolete. Flowering glume and palet chartaceo-herbaceous, 

 involute, enclosing the linear-oblong grain, somewhat equal, rough with scat- 

 tered short bristles, the first 5-nerved, extended into a long straight awn, the 

 palet 2-pointed ; the awn-like sterile pedicel partly lodged in the groove on its 

 back. Stamens 2 ; anthers and stigmas very long. Perennial, with simple 

 culms (1-3 high) from creeping rootstocks, downy sheaths, broad and flat 

 lanceolate pointed leaves, and spikelets ' long without the awn. (Name com- 

 posed of Ppaxts, short, and \vrpov, husk, from the minute glumes.) 



1. B. aristatum, Beauv. Rocky woods; common. June. Var. EN- 

 GELMANNI, Gray, is a western form, with the second glume awn-pointed, 

 nearly half the length of the flowering one. 



25. HELEOCHLOA, Host. (PI. 7.) 



Spikelets 1-flowered, crowded in a dense spike or spike-like panicle. Lower 

 glumes persistent, membranaceous, acute, ciliate-cariuate, awnless ; flowering 

 glume similar, a little longer, and a little exceeding the palet. Stamens 3. 

 Low cespitose annuals ; spike often scarcely exserted from the upper sheath. 

 (Name from eAos, a meadow, and x^6a, grass.) 



H. scH<ENoh>ES, Host. Usually nearly prostrate and tufted ; leaves rather 

 rigid, tapering to a sharp point; spike oblong, thick, 7-20" long. (Crypsis 

 scho3noides, Lam.) Waste places, N. J. to Del. (Nat. from Eu.) 



26. PHLETJM, L. CAT'S-TAIL GRASS. (PI. 7.) 



Spikelets 1-flowered, in a very dense cylindrical spike-like panicle. Lower 

 glumes persistent, membranaceous, folded-carinate, subtruncate, mucronate or 

 short-awned ; flowering glume hyaline, shorter, truncate. Stamens 3. Styles 

 distinct. Perennials. (From </>A.e'u;s, a Greek name for a kind of reed.) 



