GRAMINE^E. (GRASS FAMILY.) 577 



flower either neutral or staminate, of one palea which closely resembles the up- 

 per glume, and sometimes with a second thin one. Upper flower perfect, closed, 

 coriaceous or cartilaginous, usually flattish parallel with the glumes, awnless, 

 enclosing the free and grooveless grain. Stamens 3. Stigmas plumose, usually 

 purple. (An ancient Latin name of the Italian Millet, P. Italicum (now Seta- 

 ria Italica), thought to come from pants, bread ; some species furnishing a kind 

 of bread-corn.) 



4 1. DIGITARIA, Scop. Spikelets crowded 2- 3 togetlter in simple and mostly 

 1-sided clustered spikes or spike-like racemes, wholly awnless and pointless : lower 

 flower neutral, of a single palea : lower glume minute, sometimes obsolete or want- 

 ing : root annual : plant often purplish. 



* Spikes erect; the rhachis flliform, nearly terete. 



1. P. filiftirme, L. Culms very slender (l-2 high), upright; lower 

 sheaths hairy ; spikes 2-8, alternate and approximated, filiform ; spikelets ob- 

 long, acute (" long) ; upper glume equalling the flower, the lower almost 

 wanting. Dry sandy soil, Massachusetts to New Jersey along the coast, Illi- 

 nois, and southward. Aug. 



* * Spikes spreading ; tjie rhachis flat and thin. 



2. P, GLA.BRTJM, Gaudin. Culms spreading, prostrate, or sometimes erect 

 (5' -12' long), glabrous; spikes 2-6, widely diverging, nearly digitate; spikelets 

 ovoid (about 1" long) ; upper glume equalling the flower, the lower one almost want- 

 ing. Cultivated grounds and waste places ; common southward, and not rare 

 northward : in some places appearing as if indigenous, but probably an intro- 

 duced plant. Aug., Sept. (Nat. from Eu.) 



3. P. SANGUINALE, L. (COMMON CRAB-GRASS. FlNGER-GRASS.) CulmS 



erect or spreading (1- 2 high) ; leaves and sheaths glabrous or hairy; spikes 

 4-15, spreading, digitate; spikelets oblong (l"long); upper glume half the length 

 f the flower, the lower one small. Cultivated and waste grounds, and yards ; 

 common. (Nat. from Eu.) 



2. PANICUM PROPER. Spikelets scattered, in panicles, awnless. 

 # Panicle elongated and racemose, wand-like or pyramidal; the numerous and usually 



pointed spikelets short-pedicelled, excepting No. 7. 

 *- Sterile flower neutral, fully twice the length of the lower glume : spikelets small 



(not more than I" or l" long). 

 * Neutral flower consisting of 2 palece. 



4. P. anceps, Michx. Culms flat, upright (2 -4 high); leaves rathet 

 broadly linear (l-2 long, 4" -5" wide), smooth; panicle contracted-pyram- 

 idal ; spikelets ovate-lanceolate, pointed, a little curved ; upper glume 7 -nerved ; 

 neutral flower \ longer than the perfect one. 1|. Wet soil, pine barrens of 

 New Jersey to Virginia, and southward. Aug. Allied to the next : spikeleta 

 and branches of the panicle longer. 



5. P. agTOStoides, Spreng. Culms flattened, upright (2 high) ; leaves 

 long, and with the sheaths smooth ; panicles terminal and often lateral, pyram- 

 idal (4' -8' long) ; the spikelets racemose, crowded and one-sided on the spread- 

 ing branches, ovate-oblong, acute (purplish) ; upper glume 5-nerved, Icnger than the 



49 



