406 GRAMINE^E. (GRASS FAMILY.) 



3. A. sac Char Oides, S\vz. Stems slender, I to 3 feet high : spikes in 

 pairs (or fours) on short mostly exserted and loosely paniculate peduncles, densely 

 flowered, very silky with long bright white hairs : fertile flower monandrous, 

 with a capillary awn. A. argenteus, DC. Probably including also (at least 

 in S. Colorado) A. James ii, Torr. Colorado and southward. 



9. CHRYSOPOGON, Trin. INDIAN GRASS. WOOD GRASS. 



A tall simple perennial, with glaucous linear-lanceolate leaves and yellow- 

 ish or russet-brown and shining spikelets. 



1. C. nutans, Benth. Stem 3 to 5 feet high, terete : panicle narrowly 

 oblong; the perfect spikelets at length drooping, clothed, especially towards 

 the base, with fawn-colored hairs, lanceolate, shorter than the twisted awn ; 

 sterile spikelets small and imperfect, deciduous, or reduced to a mere plumose- 

 hairy pedicel. Sorghum nutans, Gray. Southern Colorado, and common in 

 the Atlantic States. 



10. PHALARIS, L. CANARY GRASS. 



Ours is a perennial, with broad flat leaves, branched panicle, and glumes 

 not winged on the back. 1 



1. P. arundinacea, L. Stem 2 to 4 feet high, reed-like : outer glumes 

 open at flowering, 3-nerved, thrice the length of the fertile flower : rudimen- 

 tary flowers reduced to a minute hairy scale or pedicel. Wet grounds and 

 river banks across the continent, especially northward. 



11. HIEROCHLOA, Gmelin. HOLY GRASS. VANILLA GRASS. 



Perennials with flat leaves, the dried plants giving off a pleasant vanilla- 

 like odor. 



1. H. borealis, R. & S. Stem 1 to 2 feet high, with short lanceolate 

 leaves : panicle somewhat one-sided, pyramidal ; spikelets chestnut-color : 

 staminate flowers strongly hairy-fringed on the margins ; the flowering glume 

 mucronate or bristle-pointed at or near the tip : fertile flower hairy-friuged 

 at the tip. From California to Colorado and far northward, thence eastward 

 through the northern border States and Canada to Labrador. 



12. A LOPE CUR US, L. FOXTAIL GRASS. 



Perennials, with the flower clusters contracted into a cylindrical and soft 

 dense spike, whence the name. 



1. A. alpinus, Sm. Stem erect, smooth, 6 inches to a foot high: upper 

 leaf much shorter than its inflated sheath : outer glumes rather acute, 3-ribbed, 

 covered on the back with long dense white hairs : flowering glume about 

 equalling the outer ones, the awn exserted more than half its length, slightly bent 

 but not twisted. English Fl. i. 81. High mountains of Colorado and north- 

 ward. 



1 It is probable that P. Canariensis, L., is sparingly naturalized within our range, the 

 seed being a favorite food of cage-birds. It may be known by its very dense spike-like 

 panicle and wing-keeled outer glumes. 



