$52 GRAMINEJE. (GRASS FAMILY.) 



3. A. arg^nteus, Ell. Culms rather slender (l-3 high); spikes in 

 pairs (rarely in fours) on short mostly exserted and loosely paniculate peduncles, 

 densely flowered (l'-2' long), very silky with long bright white hairs. (A. argyraeus, 

 Schultes. A. Ellidttii, Chapm.) Delaware ( W. M. Canby), Virginia, near the 

 coast, and southward. Sept., Oct. 



4. A. Virginicus, L. Culm flattish below, slender (2 -3 high), spar- 

 ingly short-branched above, sheaths smooth ; spikes 2 or 3 together in distant oppressed 

 clusters, shorter than their sheathing bracts, weak (!' long), the spikelets loose on the 

 filiform rhachis, the soft hairs dull white. (A. vaginatus, Elf., a form with larger 

 and inflated sheaths.) Sandy soil, E. Massachusetts to Virginia, Illinois, and 

 southward. Sept., Oct. 



5. A. macrotirus, Michx. Culm stout (2 -3 high), bushy-branched at 

 the summit, loaded with very numerous spikes forming thick leafy clusters ; sheaths 

 rough, the uppermost hairy; flowers nearly as in the preceding; the sterile 

 spikelet of each pair wholly wanting, its pedicel slender and very plumose. 

 Low and sandy grounds, New York to Virginia, near the coast, and southward. 

 Sept., Oct. 



66. SORGHUM, Pers. BROOM CORN. (PI. 14.) 



Spikelets 2-3 together on the ramifications of an open panicle, the lateral 

 ones sterile or often reduced merely to their pedicels ; only the middle or ter- 

 minal one fertile, its glumes coriaceous or indurated, sometimes awnless : other- 

 wise nearly as in Andropogon. Stamens 3. ( The Asiatic name of S. VDLGARE, 

 the INDIAN MILLET, to which species belongs GUINEA-CORN, BROOM-CORN, 

 the SWEET SORGHUM, and other cultivated races.) 



1. S. ntltans, Gray. (INDIAN GRASS. WOOD-GRASS.) Root perennial ; 

 culm simple (3 -5 high), terete; leaves linear-lanceolate, glaucous; sheaths 

 smooth ; panicle narrowly oblong, crowded or loose (6' - 12' long) ; the perfect 

 spikelets at length drooping (yellowish or russet-brown and shining), clothed, 

 especially towards the base, with fawn-colored hairs, lanceolate, shorter than the 

 twisted awn ; the sterile spikelets small and imperfect, deciduous, or reduced to 

 a mere plumose-hairy pedicel. (Andropogon nutans, L.) Dry soil : common, 

 especially southward, where it runs into several marked varieties or perhaps 

 species (S. avenaceum, nutans, and secundum, Chapman). Aug. -Oct. 



