GRAMIXEJE. (GRASS FAMILY.) 547 



12. CALAMAGROSTIS, Adans. REED B ENT-GRASS. 



Spikelete 1 -flowered, and often with a pedicel or rudiment of a second abor- 

 tive flower, in an open or spiked panicle. Glumes keeled or boat-shaped, often 

 acute, commonly nearly equal, and exceeding the flower, which is surrounded 

 at the base by a copious tuft of white bristly hairs. Paleae membranaceous, or 

 in the second and third sections of a firmer texture ; the lower bearing a slender 

 awn on the back or below the tip, rarely awnless ; the upper mostly shorter. 

 Stamens 3. Grain free. Perennials, with running rootstocks, and mostly tall 

 and simple rigid culms. (Name compounded of /coXa/ios, a reed, and dypdorts, 

 a grass.) 



4 1. CALAMAGROSTIS PROPER. Flower, $-c. much as in Agrostis, excejyt 

 the hairy tuft : the boat-shaped glumes and the palece membranaceous; the former 

 equal or the lower one rather longer: lower palea 3-5-nerved, aicned on the back: 

 panicle open. (All the following have a rudimentary plumose pedicel of a second 

 flower.) 



* Glumes open or loose after flowering. 



1. C. Cauadensis, Beauv. (BLUE JOINT-GRASS.) Panicle oblong, 

 loose (often purplish) ; lower palea nearly as long as the lanceolate acute glumes, 

 not exceeding the very fine hairs, bearing an extremely delicate awn below the middle 

 scarcely equalling or exceeding the hairs ; rudimentary pedicel minute. ( Arun- 

 do Canadensis, Michx. C. Mexican a, Nutt.) Wet grounds; common north- 

 ward, and southward along the Alleghanies. July. Rather glaucous, 3 - 5 

 high: leaves flat. Glumes rough, l" long. See Addend. 



* * Glumes closed inf.-uit. 



2. C. COllfiuis, Nutt. Panicle elongated, narrow (5' -8' long), the 

 branches appressed after flowering, pale ; lower palea nearly equalling the oblong- 

 lanceolate acute glumes, J longer than the hairs (excepting those of the conspicuous 

 rudiment), bearing between the middle and tlie base a rather stout and slightlt/ exserted 

 awn. (Ar. confinis, Willd. ! C. inexpansa, Gray.) Swamps, N. and W.- New 

 York (especially Penn Yan, Sartwell) and Pennsylvania. July. Spikelets 

 rather larger than in the last; upper glume more or less shorter. 



3. C. eoa ret fata, Torr. Panicle contracted, dense (3' -6' long); lower 

 palea shorter than the taper-pointed tips of the lanceolate glumes, almost twice the length 

 of the hairs (excepting the strong tuft borne by the conspicuous rudiment), bear- 

 ing a rigid and exserted short awn above the middle. (C. Canadensis, Nutt.) 

 Wet grounds, Mass, to Wisconsin? and (chiefly) southward. Aug. Culm 

 3- 5 high. Glumes 4" long. Grain hairy, crowned with a bearded tuft. 



4. C. Pickcriilgii. Panicle dense and narrow ( 3' -5' long, purplish) ; 

 paleae nearly equal, rather shorter than the ovate-oblong merely acute glumes ; awn 

 inserted between the middle and the base, stout, often a little bent, not exceeding the 

 glumes ; hairs very short and scanty, \ the length of the paleae, half as long as the 

 small plumose rudiment. Alpine region of the White Mountains of New 

 Hampshire; first collected by Dr. Pickering smU Mr. Oakes. Sept. Culml 

 high. Spike-lets smaller and glumes less pointed than in C. sylv.-uica, DC., to 

 which belongs C. purpurasccns, R. Br. ? Leaves short and flat. 



