GKAMINE^E. (GRASS FAMILY.) 545 



low the pointless apex. Stamen one, opposite the 1 -nerved upper palea ! Grain 

 linear-oblong, free. A perennial, rather sweet-scented grass, with simple and 

 upright somewhat reed-like culms (2 -7 high), bearing a large compound ter- 

 minal panicle, its branches in fours or fives, broadly linear-lanceolate flat leaves 

 (i'~i' wide), and conspicuous ligules. Spikelets green, often purplish-tinged. 

 (Name unexplained.) 



1. C. artlildinacea, L. Moist woods and shaded swamps; rather 

 common, both northward and southward. July, Aug. Panicle 6' -15' long, 

 rather dense ; the branches and pedicels spreading in flower, afterwards erect. 

 Spikelets 2" - 3" long. Awn of the palea either obsolete or exserted. 



Var. peildllla. Panicle loose and more slender, the branches nearly 

 capillary and drooping in flower ; pedicels very rough ; glumes and palese more 

 membranaceous, the former less unequal; spikelets l"-2" long; upper palea 

 obtuse. ( C. pendula, Trin. C. latifolia, Griseb. C. expansa, Link. Blyttia 

 suaveolens, Fries.) Deep damp woods, N. New York to Lake Superior and 

 northward, and on mountains southward. A northern, more delicate state of 

 the last, as is shown by intermediate specimens. (Upper palea as long as the 

 lower, but shorter, as figured in Anders. Gram. Scand., only not with 3 stamens, 

 but monandrous, both in American specimens and in Norwegian, given in Fries, 

 Herb. Norm.) (Eu.) 



1O. MUHI.ENBERCilA, Schreber. DROP-SEED GRASS. 



Spikelets 1 -flowered, in contracted or rarely open panicles. Glumes mostly 

 acute or bristle-pointed, persistent ; the lower rather smaller or minute. Flower 

 very short-stalked or sessile in the glumes ; the paleae usually hairy-bearded at 

 the base, herbaceous, deciduous with the enclosed grain, often equal ; the lower 

 3-nerved, mucronate or awned at the apex. Stamens 3. (Dedicated to the 

 Rev. Dr. Muhlenberg, a distinguished American botanist.) 



{ 1. MUHLENBERGIA PROPER. Panicles contracted or glomerate, terminal 

 and axillary: perennials (in our species) with branching rigid culms, from scaly 

 creeping rootstocks : leaves short and narrow. 

 *= Lower palea barely mucronate or sharp-pointed. (Sp. of Cinna, Kunth, Trin.) 



1. HE. SObolifera. Culms ascending (1- 2 high), sparingly branched; 

 the simple contracted panicle very slender or filiform ; glumes barely pointed, almost 

 equal, i shorter than the equal palece ; lower palea abruptly short-mucronate. 

 ( A^rostis sobolifera, MM.) Open rocky woods, Vermont to Michigan, Illi- 

 nois, and southward. Aug. Spikelets less than 1" long. 



2. M. glomerata, Trin. Culms upright (l-2 high), sparingly 

 branched or simple ; panicle oblong-linear, contracted into an interrupted glomerate 

 spike, long-peduncled, the branches sessile ; glumes awned, nearly equal, and 

 (with the bristle-like awn) about twice the length of the unequal very acute 

 paleae. (Agr. racemosa, Michx. A. setosa, Muhl. Polypogon racemosus, JVuft.) 

 Bogs, &c. ; common, especially northward. Aug. Panicle 2' - 3' long. 



3. M. Ulexicaiia, Trin. Culms ascending, . much branched (2 -3 

 high) ; panicles latf ral and terminal, often included at the base, contracted, tut 



46* 



