26 WHITE GRASS. CUT GRASS. 



species, and varieties ; the tribes and sub-tribes em- 

 bracing more or less genera ; each germs embracing 

 more or less species, and a species often embracing 

 varieties. In the arrangement of the following pages 

 each genus is numbered in its order ; and the first we 

 have is 



1. LEERSIA. White Grass. 



Spikelets one-flowered ; flowers perfect, flattened, 

 compressed in one-sided panicled spikes or clusters, 

 jointed with the short pedicels. Glumes wanting, paleae 

 boat-shaped, flattened laterally, awnless, closed, nearly 

 equal in length, the lower one much the broader, and 

 enclosing a flat grain. Stamens one to six ; stigmas 

 feathery, with branching hairs; sheaths rough or prickly 

 upwards. Perennial ; swamps and low grounds. Ge- 

 neric name from Leers, a German botanist. 



WHITE GRASS, CUT GRASS, FALSE RICE (Leersia ory- 

 zoides), is very common in wet, swampy places, and 

 along the margins of sluggish streams and ditches. 

 Stems from two to four feet high ; panicle erect, spread- 

 ing, with rough, slender branches; leaves narrow, long; 

 sheaths exceedingly rough and sharp to the hand, drawn 

 from the end downward. Florets oval and white, or 

 whitish green; spikelets flat. Flowers in August. Said 

 to be a native of Europe and Asia, as well as the United 

 States. Common in most parts of the country, and 

 often known at the South as " rice's cousin." 



This beautiful grass is of no agricultural value ; and 

 the farmer should, by careful draining, encourage the 

 growth of more valuable species in its place. 



SMALL-FLOWERED WHITE GRASS, VIRGINIAN CUT GRASS 

 (Leersia Virginicd), is rather smoother than the pre- 

 ceding. A branch of the panicle is shown in Fig. 6. 

 The panicle is simple, slender, the spikelets closely ap- 

 pressed, oblong. A magnified spikelet is shown in Fig. 7, 



