CHAPTER III. 



NATURAL ORDER GRAMINE^ (GRASS FAMILY). 



1. LEERSIA, Solander. WHITE GRASS. 



GENERIC CHARACTER. 



Flowers crowded in one sided panlcled spikes or 

 racemes, perfect, but those in the open panicles 

 usually sterile by the abortion of the ovary, those 

 enclosed in the sheaths of the leaves close fertilized 

 in the bud and prolific. Spikelets, 1 flowered, flat, 

 more or less imbricated over each other, "jointed with 

 the short pedicils. Glumes wanting, palets texture 

 of paper, or parchment, strongly [flattened laterally 

 or folded upon themselves lengthwise, awnless, 

 bristry ciliate on the keels, closed, nearly equal in 

 length, but the lower much broader, enclosing the 

 flat grain. Stamens 1 to 6, stigmas feathery, the 

 hairs branching. Perennial marsh grasses ; the flat 

 leaves, sheaths, &c., rough upwards, being clothed 

 with very minute hooked prickles. 



(Named from Leers, a German botanist.) 



1. LEERSIA, Virginica (White Grass), Virginia 

 Cut Grass. Grows in wet woods ; flowers in August 

 and September ; ef no agricultural value. 



