GRAMINEJE. (GRASS FAMILY.) 617 



panicle. Spikelets greenish, rather large. (Name composed of opva, rice, and 

 o\lris, likeness, from a fancied resemblance to that grain.) 



* Styles distinct, short: culm leafy to the summit: leaves broad and flat. 



1. O. melanocarpa, Muhl. Leaves lanceolate, taper-pointed; sheaths 

 bearded in the throat; panicle simple or sparingly branched; awn thrice the 

 length of the blackish paltts (nearly 1' long). (Milium racemosum, Smith. Pip- 

 tatherum nigrum, Torr.) Rocky woods. Aug. Culm 2 -3 high. 



* * Styles united below, slender: culms tufted, naked: leaves concave or involute. 



2. O. asperifblia, Michx. Culms (9'-18' high) with sheaths bearing a 

 mere rudimentary blade, overtopped by the long and rigid linear leaf from the base ; 

 very simple panicle or raceme few-flowered ; awn 2- 3 times the length of the rather 

 hairy whitish paltts. (Urachne, Trin. ) Hillsides, &c., in rich woods : common 

 northward. May. Leaves without keels, rough-edged, pale beneath, lasting 

 through the winter. Squamulse lanceolate, almost as long as the inner palet ! 



3. O. Canadensis, Torr. Culms slender (6' -15' high), the lowest 

 sheaths leaf-bearing ; leaves involute-thread-shaped ; panicle contracted ( 1 ' - 2' 

 long), the branches usually in pairs; palets pubescent, whitish; awn short and 

 very deciduous, or wanting. (O. parviflora, Nutt. Stipa juncea, Michx. S. Can- 

 adensis, Poir. Milium pungens, 70/r. Urachne brevicaudata, Trin.) Rocky 

 hills and dry plains, W. New England to mountains of Penn., Wisconsin, and 

 northward : rare. May. Glumes 1" -2" long, sometimes purplish. 



15. STIPA, L. FEATHER-GRASS. (PI. 8.) 



Spikelets 1-flowered, terete; the flower falling away at maturity (with the 

 conspicuous obconical bearded and often sharp-pointed callus) from the mem- 

 branaceous glumes. Lower palet coriaceous, cylindrical-involute and closely 

 embracing the smaller upper one and the cylindrical grain, having a long 

 and twisted or tortuous simple awn jointed with its apex. Stamens mostly 3. 

 Stigmas plumose. Perennials, with narrow involute leaves and a loose 

 panicle. (Name from OTUTTJJ, tow, in allusion to the flaxen appearance of the 

 feathery awns of the original species. In our species the awn is naked.) 

 * Callus or base of the flower short and blunt: glumes pointless. 



1. S. Richards6nii, Link. Culm (l-2 high) and leaves slender; 

 panicle loose (4' -5' long), with slender few-flowered branches; glumes nearly 

 equal, oblong, acutish (2^" long), about equalling the pubescent linear-oblong 

 lower palet, which bears a tortuous awn 6" -8" long. Pleasant Mountain, 

 near Sebago Lake, Maine, C. J. Sprague, and northwestward. (Flowers rather 

 smaller than in Richardson's plant, as described.) 



* * Callus or base of the flower pungently pointed, at maturity villous-bearded : lower 

 palet slender and minutely bearded at the tip : glumes taper-pointed. 



2. S. avenacea, L. (BLACK OAT-GRASS.) Culm slender (1- 2 high) ; 

 leaves almost bristle-form ; panicle open ; palets blackish, nearly an long as the glumes 

 (about 4"long) ; theawn bent above, twisted below (2'-3' long). Dry or sandy 

 woods, S. New England to Wisconsin, and southward. July. 



3. S. spartea, Trin., not of Hook. (PORCUPINE GRASS.) Culm rather 



