GKAMINE^E. (GKASS FAMILY.) 403 



1. PASPALUM, L. 



Ours are perennials, with very obtuse orbicular spikelets and a narrow wing- 

 less rhachis. 



1. P. setaceum, Michx. Stems ascending or decumbent (1 to 2 feet 

 long), slender : leaves and sheaths clothed with soft spreading hairs : spikes 

 very slender (2 to 4 inches long), mostly solitary on a long peduncle, and 

 usually one from the sheaths of each of the upper leaves on short peduncles 

 or included: spikelets narrowly 2-rowed. Colorado (Hall fr Harbour), and 

 very common eastward. 



2. BECKMANNIA, Host. 



A coarse perennial aquatic, with flat scabrous leaves and glabrous sheaths. 



1. B. erucaeformis, Host. Stems stout, 1 to 4 feet high: leaves 4 to 8 

 inches long ; ligules elongated : panicle 4 to 12 inches long, erect, strict, secund, 

 the short crowded branchlets densely flowered from the base : spikelets nearly 

 orbicular, the upper rudimentary floret minute, stipitate. Widely distributed 

 west of the Mississippi. 



3. PANICUM, L. PANIC GRASS. 



Panicle sometimes with the inflorescence crowded upon one side of a narrow 

 rhachis. Grasses of various habits, from low and almost prostrate to stout 

 and several feet high. 



* Spikelets disposed in diffuse and spreading panicles, scattered, awnless. 1 

 *- Spikelets pointed. 



1. P. capillare, L. Sheaths and usually the leaves very hairy: panicle 

 half the length of the stem, very open, its long slender branches solitary or 

 in pairs, divaricate when old ; spikelets ovoid to narrowly oblong, scattered, 

 on long pedicels : sterile flower neutral and of a single glume, twice the length 

 of the acute 1 -nerved lower glume ; upper glume 5-nerved, pointed, nearlv a 

 half longer than the somewhat obtuse perfect flower. An abundant grass 

 from the Atlantic to the Pacific, mostly in sandy soil. Known as " Old- Witch 

 Grass." 



2. P. Virgatum, L. Taller (3 to 5 feet high) and glabrous: leaves very 

 long, fiat : branches of the compound loose and large panicle at length spread- 

 ing or drooping; spikelets ovate, scattered, usually purplish: sterile fiower 

 staminate and of a flowering glume and a single palet; lower glume more than 

 half the length of the upper. About Denver, and common in the Eastern 

 States. 



3. P. amarum, Ell. Like the last, but much smaller, with stems sheathed 

 to the top, leaves involute, glaucous, coriaceous, the uppermost exceeding the 

 contracted panicle. Canon City (Brandegee), and in sandy soil along the 

 Atlantic coast. 



1 P. sanguinale, L., an introduce.fi species, has spikelets in pairs, one sessile, the other 

 peclicelled, crowded on one side of four or more simple flattened branches digitately clustered 

 at the top of the stem ; the lower glume very minute, the upper half the length of the 

 flower. Appearing late in the season, and known as CRAB GRASS or FINGER GKASS. 



