674 GRAMINE^E. (GRASS FAMILY.) 



76. ASPRELLA, Willd. BOTTLE-BRUSH GRASS. (PL 11.) 



Spikelets 2 - 3 or sometimes solitary on each joint of the rhachis of a ter- 

 minal spike, raised on a very short callous pedicel, loosely 2-4-flowered (when 

 solitary flatwise on the rhachis). Glumes none ! or small, awn-like, and de- 

 ciduous. Otherwise nearly as in Elymus. (Name a diminutive of asper, 

 rough or prickly.) 



1. A. H^Strix, Willd. Perennial; culms 3 -4 high; leaves and sheaths 

 smoothish ; spike loose (3 -6' long); the spreading spikelets 2-3 together, 

 early deciduous ; flowers smoothish or often rough-hairy, tipped with an awn 

 thrice their length (V long). ( Gymnostichum Hystrix, Schreb.) Moist 

 woodlands. July, Aug. 



77. ARUNDINARIA, Michx. CANE. (PL 11.) 



Spikelets flattened, 5 - 14-flowered; the flowers somewhat separated on the 

 jointed rhachis. Empty glumes very small, membranaceous, the upper one 

 larger. Flowering glumes and palet herbaceous or somewhat membranaceous, 

 the glume convex on the back, many-nerved, tapering into a mucronate point 

 or bristle. Squamulae 3, longer than the ovary. Stamens 3. Grain oblong, 

 free. Arborescent or shrubby grasses, simple or with fascicled branches, and 

 with large spikelets in panicles or racemes ; blade of the leaf jointed upon the 

 sheath ; flowers polygamous. (Name from arundo, a reed.) 



1. A. macrosp^rma, Michx. (LARGE CANE.) (PI. 11, fig. 1, 2.) Culms 

 arborescent, 10-40 high and -3' thick at base, rigid, simple the first year, 

 branching the second, afterwards at indefinite periods fruiting, and soon after 

 decaying; leaves lanceolate (1 -2' wide), smoothish or pubescent, the sheath 

 ciliate on one margin, stoutly fimbriate each side of the base of the leaf ; pan- 

 icle lateral, composed of few simple racemes ; spikelets 1 - 3' long, purplish 

 or pale, erect ; flowering glume lanceolate, acute or acuminate, glabrous or 

 pubescent, fringed (5-12" long). River-banks, S. Va. (?), Ky., and south- 

 ward, forming cane-brakes. April. 



Var. suflru.ti.c6sa, Munro. (SWITCH CANE. SMALL CANE.) Lower and 

 more slender (2-10 high), often growing in water; leaves 4"-!' broad; 

 spikelets solitary or in a simple raceme at the summit of the branches, or fre- 

 quently on leafless radical culms. (A. tecta, Muhl.) Swamps and moist soil, 

 Md., S. Ind. to S. E. Mo., and southward. Sometimes fruiting several years 

 in succession. 



