652 GRAMINE^E. (GRASS FAMILY.) 



A. AVENACEUM, Beauv. Root perennial; culm 2-4 high; leaves broad, 

 flat ; panicle elongated ; glumes scarious, very unequal. Meadows and lots ; 

 absurdly called Grass of the Andes. May- July. (Nat from Eu.) 



36. HOLCUS, L. (partly). MEADOW SOFT-GRASS. (PI. 12.) 



Spikelets crowded in an open panicle, 2-flowered ; the boat-shaped membra- 

 naceous glumes enclosing and much exceeding the remotish flowers. Lower 

 flower perfect, its papery or thin-coriaceous glume awnless and pointless ; the 

 upper flower staminate, otherwise similar, but bearing a stout bent awn below 

 the apex. Stamens 3. Styles plumose to the base. Grain free. (A name in 

 Pliny for a kind of grass, from 6\K6s, attractive, of obscure application.) 



H. LANATUS, L. (VELVET-GRASS.) Perennial, eoff-downy and pale; pan- 

 icle oblong ; upper empty glume mucronate-awned under the apex ; awn of 

 the staminate flower curved. Moist meadows. June. (Nat. from Eu.) 



37. AIR A, L. HAIR-GRASS. 



Spikelets very small, in an open diffuca panicle, of 2 perfect contiguous flow- 

 ers. Glumes thin-membranaceous, the two lower persistent, nearly equal, acute, 

 keeled ; the flowering ones obscurely nerved, acutely 2-cleft at the apex, bear- 

 ing a slender twisted awn below the middle. Stamens 3. Styles plumose to 

 the base. Grain oblong, adnate. Low annuals, with short setaceous leaves 

 (An ancient Greek name for Darnel.) 



A. CARYOPHYLLEA, L. Culms 5 - 10' high, bearing a very diffuse panicle 

 of purplish and at length silvery scarious spikelets. Dry fields, Nantucket ; 

 also Newcastle, Del., W . M. Canby. (Nat. from Eu.) 



A. PR^ECOX, L. Culms tufted, 3 - 4' high ; branches of the small and dense 

 panicle appressed ; awn from below the middle of the glume. Sandy fields, 

 N. J. to Va. ; rare. (Nat. from Eu.) 



38. DESCHAMPSIA, Beauv. (PI. 12.) 



Spikelets small, panicled, of 2 perfect flowers and the hairy pedicel or rudi 

 ment of a third (rarely staminate) ; rhachis hairy. Empty glumes persistent, 

 membranaceous and shining, carinate, acute, nearly equal ; flowering glumes 

 toothed or erose-denticulate at the truncate summit, usually delicately 3 - 5- 

 nerved, with a slender twisted awn near or below the middle. Grain oblong, 

 free. Root perennial. (Named for IjOisQlevu-Deslongchamps, a French bot- 

 anist.) 



* Empty glumes somewhat shorter than the flowers. 



1. D. flexubsa, Trin. (COMMON HAIR-GRASS.) (PI. 12, fig. 1-3.) 

 Culms slender, nearly naked (1-3 high) above the small tufts of involute 

 bristle-form root-leaves (1-6' long); branches of the small spreading panicle 

 capillary ; awn longer than the palet, at length bent and twisted. (Aira flexuosa, 

 L.) Dry places ; common. June. (Eu.) 



2. D. CSespitdsa, Beauv. Culm tufted (2-4 high); leaves flat, linear; 

 panicle pyramidal or oblong (6' long) ; awn straight, barely equalling the glume. 

 (Aira caespitosa, L.) Shores of lakes and streams; N. Eng. to Penn., Mich., 

 and northward. June, July. (Eu.) 



* * Empty glumes longer than the flowers, 2-2|" long. 



3. D. atropurptirea, Scheele. Culms 8-15' high, weak; leaves flat, 

 rather wide ; panicle of few spreading branches ; awn stout, twice longer than 

 the nerveless truncate ciliolate-denticulate glume. (Aira atropurpurea, Wahl. \ 

 Alpine summits of N. H. and N. Y., to Lab. and northward. Aug. (Eu.) 



