(GRASS FAMILY.) 655 



44. GYMNOPOGON, Beauv. (PI. 9.) 



Spikelets of one perfect flower, and the rudiment of a second (consisting of 

 an awn-like pedicel mostly bearing a naked bristle), sessile and remotely alter- 

 nate on long filiform rays or spikes, which form a crowded naked raceme. 

 Glumes lance-awl-shaped, keeled, almost equal, rather longer than the mem- 

 branaceous flowering glume, which is cylindrical-involute, with the midrib 

 produced from just below the 2-cleft apex into a straight and slender bristle- 

 like awn ; palet nearly as long, with the abortive rudiment at its base. Sta- 

 mens 3. Stigmas pencil-form, purple. Root perennial. Leaves short and 

 flat, thickish, 1-3' long. (Name composed of yvpv6s, naked, and irc&yw, a 

 beard, alluding to the reduction of the abortive flower to a bare awn.) 



1. G. racem6sus, Beauv. (PI. 9, fig. 1, 2.) Culms clustered from a 

 short rootstock (1 high), wiry, leafy; leaves oblong-lanceolate; spikes flower- 

 bearing to the base (5-8' long), soon divergent; awn of the abortive flower 

 shorter than its stalk, equalling the painted glumes, not more than half the 

 length of the awn of the fertile flower. Sandy pine-barrens, N. J. to Va., and 

 southward Aug., Sept. 



2. G. brevifdlius, Trin. Filiform spikes long-peduncled, i. e. flower- 

 bearing only above the middle ; flowering glume ciliate near the base, short- 

 awned ; awn of the abortive flower obsolete or minute ; glumes acute. Sussex 

 Co., Del., and southward. 



45. SCHEDONNABDUS, Steud. (PL 11.) 

 Spikelets small, acuminate, 1 -flowered, appressed-sessile and scattered along 

 one side of the slender rhachis of the distant sessile and divaricately spreading 

 spikes. Empty glumes persistent, narrow, acuminate, more or less unequal, 

 the longer usually a little shorter than the rather rigid acuminate flowering 

 one. Stamens 3. Styles distinct. Grain linear. A low slender annual, 

 branching from the base, with short narrow leaves. (Name from VX^M, near, 

 and Nardus, from its resemblance to that genus.) 



1. S. Texnus, Steud. Stem (6-20' long) naked and curved above, 

 bearing 3-9 racemosely disposed thread-like and triangular spikes 1 -3' long ; 

 spikelets 1-J" long. (Lepturus paniculatus, Nutt.) Open grounds and salt- 

 licks, 111. to Mont., Col., and Tex. Aug. 



46. BOTJTELOTJA, Lagasca. MUSKET-GRASS. (PI. 9.) 

 Spikelets crowded and closely sessile in 2 rows on one side of a flattened 

 rhachis, comprising one perfect flower below and one or more sterile (mostly 

 neutral) or rudimentary flowers. Glumes convex-keeled, the lower one shorten 

 Perfect flower with the 3-nerved glume 3-toothed or cleft at the apex, the 2- 

 nerved palet 2-toothed ; the teeth, at least of the former, pointed or subulate- 

 awned. Stamens 3 ; anthers orange-colored or red. Rudimentary flowers 

 mostly 1 - 3-awned. Spikes solitary, racemed or spiked ; the rhachis some- 

 what extended beyond the spikelets. (Named for Claudius Boutelou, a Span- 

 ish writer upon floriculture and agriculture.) 



1. CHONDR6SIUM. Spikes pectinate, of very many spikelets, oblong or 

 linear, very dense, solitary and terminal or few in a raceme ; sterile flowers 

 1-3 on a short pedicel, neutral t consisting of 1-3 scales and awns. 



