568 GKAMINE^E. (GRASS FAMILY.) 



the lowest perfect and monandrous. Shaded rich hill-sides, S. Perm, to Illinois 

 and southward. Aug. Culm 2 -4 high : panicle loose. 

 * # Spikelets small: panicle contracted and wand-like: per feet flowers long-pointed. 

 3. U. gracilis, Michx. Spiktkts short-pcdicelled (2" -3" long), broadly 

 wedge-shaped, acute at the base, 4 - %-flowered : the flowers ovate and divergent- 

 ly beaked, long, the lowest one neutral. Sandy soil, from Long Island to Vir- 

 ginia, near the coast, and southward. Aug. Culm 3 high, slender. 



39. PIIRAGMITES, Trin. REED. 



Spikelets 3 - 7-flowercd ; the flowers rather distant, silky-villous at their base, 

 and with a conspicuous silky-bearded rhachis, all perfect and 3-androus, except 

 the lowest, which is either neutral or with 1-3 stamens, and naked. Glumes 

 membranaceous, shorter than the flowers, lanceolate, keeled, sharp-pointed, very 

 unequal. Pale membranaceous, slender; the lower narrowly awl-shaped, 

 thrice the length of the upper. Squamulai 2, large. Styles long. Grain free. 

 Tall and stout perennials, with numerous broad leaves, and a large terminal 

 panicle. ($pay/iir^?, growing in hedges, which this aquatic Grass does not.) 



1. P. COminiiaiiS, Trin. Panicle loose, nodding ; spikelets 3-5-flow- 

 ered ; flowers equalling the wool. ( Arundo, L.) Edges of ponds and swamps ; 

 common northward. Sept. Looks like Broom-corn at a distance, 5 -12 

 high : leaves 2' wide. (Eu.) 



40. ARUNDI1VARIA, Michx, CANB 



Spikelets flattened, 5-14-flowered; the flowers somewhat separated on the 

 jointed rhachis. Glumes very small, membranaceous, the upper one larger. 

 Paleae herbaceous or somewhat membranaceous ; the lower convex on the back, 

 not keeled, many-nerved, tapering into a mucronate point or bristle. Squamulas 

 3, longer than the ovary. Stamens 3. Grain oblong, free. Arborescent or 

 shrubby Grasses, simple or with fascicled branches, and with large spikelets in 

 panicles or racemes ; the flowers polygamous, viz. perfect and staminate. (Name 

 formed from arundo, a reed.) 



1. A. macrosperma, Michx. Spikelets (!'- 3' long) rather few in a 

 simple panicle, sometimes solitary on a slender peduncle ; leaves linear-lanceo- 

 late, pubescent beneath : in the SMALL CANE '- 1' wide, in the TALL CANB 

 l'-2' wide. Culm of the latter sometimes 20 - 35, in cane-brakes ; but it very 

 rarely blossoms. In rich soil, Virginia, Illinois, and southward. April. 



41. L.EPTIIRUS, R. Brown. LEFTURUS. 



Spikelets solitary on each joint of the filiform rhachis, and partly immersed 

 in the excavation, 1 - 2-flowered. Glumes 1-2, including the 2 thin pointless 

 paleae. Stamens 3. Grain free, oblong-linear, cylindrical. Low and branch- 

 ing, often procumbent Grasses, chiefly annuals, with narrow leaves and slender 

 spikes (whence the name, from Xf TITOS, slender, and ovpd, tail). 



1. Li. 1 paiiiculatus, Nutt. Stem slender (6' -20' long), naked and 

 curved above, bearing 3-9 racemosely disposed thread-like and triangular 



