C02 GFRAMINE^E. (GRASS FAMILY.) 



He spikes I or 2, oft'.-n solitary. (The two following are very much alike; and 

 one or the other is doubtless C. miliaris, Michx. The first is regarded by 

 Andersson as an extreme form of C. ampullacea, the second of C. vesicaria.) 



149. C. rotund&ta, Wahl. ? Leaves and bracts involute, smoothish ; fertile 

 spikes oblong or cylindraceous, or the upper ovate or globular ; perigynia short- 

 ovate, about the length of the broadly ovate (obtuse, or in our specimens acute 

 or pointed) scale. Gravel-bars at the outlet of Moosehead Lake, N. Maine, 

 C. E. & A. If. Smith. The specimens are a foot high, with one leaf on the 

 obtusely angula.r culm, and only the lowest spike leafy-bracted : sterile spike 

 single the fruit not fully formed. (Eu.) 



150. C. plilla, Good.? Leaves and bracts fiat, with a slender triangular 

 apex, rough-margined ; culm rather sharply triangular ; perigynia inflated- 

 ovate, mostly longer than the ovate scale. (C. saxatilis, L., but that was in 

 part C. rigida : the name is appropriate for that but not for this species, and is 

 better discarded altogether.) (Eu.) Var. ? MILIARIS. Culm more slender, 

 1 or more high ; fertile spikes paler (1-3), ovoid or oblong, in our specimens 

 staminate at the apex, each with a very rough leafy bract, the lowest often sur- 

 passing the culm. (C. miliaris, Michx.) Outlet of Moosehead Lake, with or 

 near the preceding, July 29, C. E. & A. H. Smith ; and far northward. 



H- *- Perigynia abruptly contracted into a very long and 2-toothed beak. 



151. C. longirbstris, Torr. Sterile spikes usually 3, at the summit of 

 a long slender stalk ; the lower often bearing some fertile flowers ; fertile spikes 

 2-4, cylindrical, more or less distant, on long filiform at length drooping stalks, 

 loosely flowered ; perigynia globose-ovoid, smooth and shining, abruptly con- 

 tracted into a slender cylindrical beak, which is longer than the body, rough on 

 the margin, and 2-cleft at the membranaceous orifice, a little longer than the 

 lanceolate light-colored or white scale. (C. Sprengelii, Dew.) Shady rocks, 

 N. New England to Wisconsin, and northward. 



ORDER 128. GRAUltfEJE. (GRASS FAMILY.) 



Grasses, with usually hollow stems (culms) closed at the joints, alternate 2- 

 ranked leaves, their sheaths split or open on the side opposite the blade ; the 

 hypoyynous flowers imbricated with Z-ranked glumes or bracts : the outer 

 pair (glumes proper) subtending the spikelet of one or several flowers ; 

 the inner pair (palece or palets} enclosing each particular flower, which is 

 usually furnished with 2 or 3 minute hypogynous scales (squamulcz, Juss., 

 lodiculcE, Beauv.). Stamens 1-6, commonly 3 : anthers versatile, 2-celled, 

 the cells distinct. Styles mostly 2 or 2-parted : stigmas hairy or feathery. 

 Ovary 1-celled, 1-ovuled, forming a seed-like grain (caryopsis) in fruit. 

 Embryo small, on the outside and at the base of the floury albumen. 

 Roots fibrous. Sheath of the leaves usually more or less extended above 

 the base of the blade into a scarious appendage (ligule). Spikelets pani- 

 cled or spiked. Inner (upper) palet usually 2-nerved or 2-keeled, enclosed 

 or partly covered by the outer (lower) palet. Grain sometimes free from, 



