(GRASS FAMILY.) 663 



2. IT. Iatif61ia, Michx. (PI. 11, fig. 1-3.) Culm 2-4 high; panicle 

 loose; leaves broad and flat (nearly V wide) ; spikelets at length oblong, hang- 

 ing on long pedicels ; glumes acute, ciliate on the keel, all but the lowest with 

 perfect monandrous flowers. Shaded slopes, S. Penn. to 111., and southward. 



* * Spikelets small ; panicle contracted , wand-like ; perfect flowers long-pointed. 



3. U. gracilis, Michx. Culm 3 high, slender ; spikelets short-pedicelled 

 (2-3" long), broadly wedge-shaped, acute at base, 4 - 8-jlowered ; glumes ovate 

 and divergently beaked, long, the 3 lowest empty. Sandy soil, from Long 

 Island to Va., near the coast, and southward. Aug. , 



61. D I S T I C H L I S, Raf . SPIKE-GRASS. (PI. 10.) 



Spikelets and numerous flowers compressed, crowded in a densely spiked or 

 capitate panicle. Glumes herbaceous or membranaceous, the lower faintly 

 many-nerved; flowering glumes rather coriaceous, laterally much flattened, 

 faintly many-nerved, acute. Ovary stalked. Flowers dioecious, rather large. 

 Leaves crowded, involute, usually rigid. (Name from S'HTTIXOS, two-ranked.) 



1. D. maritima, Raf. Culms tufted from creeping rootstocks (9-18' 

 high) ; spike oblong, flattened (V long) ; spikelets ovate or oblong, 5-10-flow- 

 ered; glumes smooth and naked; grain pointed. (Brizopyrum spicatum, 

 Hook.) Salt marshes and shores. Aug. Glumes of the pistillate flowers 

 more rigid and almost keeled ; stigmas very long, plumose ; the staminate 

 glumes smaller and somewhat rounded on the back. 



62. DACTYL IS, L. ORCHARD GRASS. (PI. 10.) 



Spikelets several-flowered, crowded in one-sided clusters, forming a branch- 

 ing dense panicle. Glumes all herbaceous, keeled, awn-pointed, rough-ciliate 

 on the keel ; the flowering one 5-nerved, the upper most commonly smaller 

 and thinner. Stamens 3. Grain lance-oblong, acute, free. Stout tufted per- 

 ennial ; leaves keeled. (Dactylos, a name in Pliny for a grass with digitate 

 spikes, from SctarvAos, a finger.) 



D. GLOMERATA, L. Rough, rather glaucous (3 high) ; leaves broadly 

 linear ; branches of the panicle naked at base ; spikelets 3 - 4-flowered. Fields 

 and yards, especially in shade. June. (Nat. from Eu.) 



63. BRIZA, L. QUAKING GRASS. (PI. 10.) 



Spikelets many-flowered, ovate or heart-shaped, flattish-tumid ; the flowers 

 closely imbricated. Glumes roundish, unequal, purplish, very concave or 

 ventricose, 3 - 5-nerved ; the flowering ventricose on the back, heart-shaped at 

 the base, papery-membranaceous and becoming dry, scarious-margined, ob- 

 scurely many-nerved ; the palet much smaller, ovate, flat. Stamens 3. Stig- 

 mas branched-plumose. Grain flattened parallel with the glumes, adhering to 

 the palet. Leaves flat ; panicle loose, diffuse, with large showy spikelets often 

 drooping on delicate pedicels. (Bpifa, the Greek name of a kind of grain.) 



B. MEDIA, L. Panicle erect, the branches spreading; spikelets 5 - 9-flow- 

 ered (3" long) ; lower glumes shorter than the first flowering one; root per- 

 ennial. Pastures ; sparingly eastward. June. (Adv. from Eu.) 



64. POA, L. MEADOW-GRASS. SPEAR-GRASS. (PI. 10.) 



Spikelets ovate or lance-ovate, laterally compressed, several- (2 -10-) flow- 

 ered, in an open panicle. Empty glumes mostly shorter than the flowers, the 



