568 GRAMINE^:. (GRASS FAMILY.) 



the lowest perfect and monandrous. Shaded rich hill-sides, S. Perm, to Illinoii 

 and southward. Aug. Culm 2 - 4 high : panicle loose. 

 # * Spikelets small: panicle contracted and wand-like: perfect flowers long-pointed. 

 3. U. gracilis, Michx. Spikelets short-pedicelled (2" -3" long), broadly 

 wedge-shaped, acute at the base, 4 - 8-ftowered : the flowers ovate and divergent- 

 ly beaked, long, the lowest one neutral. Sandy soil, from Long Island to Vir- 

 ginia, near the coast, and southward. Aug. Culm 3 high, slender. 



39. PHRAGM ITES, Trin. REED. 



Spikelets 3 - 7-flowered ; the flowers rather distant, silky-villous at their base, 

 and with a conspicuous silky-bearded rhachis, all perfect and 3-androus, except 

 the lowest, which is either neutral or with a single stamen, and naked. Glumes 

 membranaceous, shorter than the flowers, lanceolate, keeled, sharp-pointed, very 

 unequal. Palese membranaceous, slender; the lower narrowly awl-shaped, 

 thrice the length of the upper. Squamulae 2, large. Styles long. Grain free. 

 Tall and stout perennials, with numerous broad leaves, and a large terminal 

 panicle. ($ pay pirns, growing in hedges, which this aquatic Grass does not.) 



1. P. COmnmiliS, Trin. Panicle loose, nodding ; spikelets 3-5-flow- 

 ered ; flowers equalling the wool. ( Arundo, L. ) Edges of ponds and swamps ; 

 common northward. Sept. Looks like Broom-corn at a distance, 5 -12 

 high : leaves 2' wide. (Eu.) 



4O. ARUNDINARIA, Michx. CANE. 



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

 jointed rhachis. Glumes very small, membranaceous, the upper one larger. 

 Palese herbaceous or somewhat membranaceous ; the lower convex on the back, 

 not keeled, 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 ; the flowers polygamous, viz. perfect and staminate. (Name 

 formed from arundo > a reed.) 



1. A. macrospcrma, Michx. Spikelets (1^'- 3' long) rather few in a 

 simple panicle, sometimes solitary on a slender peduncle ; leaves linear-lanceo- 

 late, pubescent beneath : in the SMALL CANE '-!' wide, in the TALL CANE 

 1 '-2' wide. Culm of the latter sometimes 20 -35, in cane-brakes ; but it very 

 rarely blossoms. In rich soil, Virginia, Kentucky, and southward. April. 



41. 1.EPTIJRUS, E. Brown. LEPTURUS. 



Spikelets solitary on each joint of the filiform rhachis, and partly immersed 

 in the excavation, 1 - 2-flowered. Glumes 1-2, including the 2 thin pointless 

 palese. Stamens 3. Grain free, oblong-linear, cylindrical. Low and branch- 

 ing, often procumbent Grasses, chiefly annuals, with narrow leaves and slender 

 spikes (whence the name, from Xtyrro?, slender, and ovpd, tail). 



1. L<. 1 panic ulatllS, Nutt. Stem slender (6' -20' long), naked and 

 curved above, bearing 3-9 racemosely disposed thread-like and triangular 



