GRASS FAMILY. 



1. LEER'SIA, Solander. FALSE RICE. 



[Named in honor of John Daniel Leers; a German Botanist.] 



Spikelets 1-flowered, perfect, disposed in one-sided racemose panicles, ar- 

 ticulated with the short pedicels. Glumes wanting. Pale chartaceous, 

 compressed carinate, awnless, bristly-ciliate on the keels, nearly equal in 

 length, but the lower one much broader and boat-shaped, enclosing the 

 flat grain. Stamens 1-6. Stigmas plumose with branching hairs. 

 Perennial marsh grasses, with the culms, sheaths and flat leaves retrorsely 

 scabrous. 



1. L. oryzoi'des, Swartz. Panicle diffusely branched; florets triau- 



drous ; palea? conspicuously ciliate on the keel. 



ORYZA OR RICE-LIKE LEERSIA. Cut-grass. False or wild Rice. 



Root perennial, creeping. Culm 3-5 feet high, striate, scabrous with minute retrorse 

 prickles, the nodes pubescent. Leaves 6 -12 inches long, lance-linear, acuminate, keeled, 

 retrorsely and sharply scabrous, ciliate on the margin ; s/ieotfissuloate-striate, very rough 

 with retrorse prickles in the grooves ; ligule short, retuse. Pantile usually sheathed at 

 base, much branched ; branches flexuose, the lower ones in threes and fours. Spikelets 

 elliptic-oblong, pedicellate, greenish-white. Palece compressed, pectinate-ciliate on the 

 keel, the lower one boat-shaped, 3-nerved, the upper one a little longer, linear, 1-nerved. 



Swamps, and along sluggish rivulets : throughout the United States. Fl. August. Fr. 

 Sept. 



06s. This rough grass seems to be common to both hemispheres, 

 and is often quite abundant in our swampy meadows, and along the mar- 

 gins of muddy streams. Although this grass is said to have some value 

 at the South, it is in the Northern States considered not only worthless, 

 but rather a nuisance. The farmer should therefore know it, and take 

 measures (by drainage, &c.) to expel it, or keep it in subjection. 



2. ORY 'ZA, L. RICE. 



[The Greek name of Rice, coined from Eruz, its Arabic name.] 



Spikelets 1-flowered, perfect. Glumes 2, small, awnless but cuspidate, 

 slightly concave. Pale 2, compressed-carinate, nearly equal in 

 length, the lower one broader, and often with a straight awn at apex. 

 Stamens 6. Ovary smooth ; stigmas plumose, the hairs branched. 

 Caryopsis oblong, free, closely embraced by the persistent paleae. 

 1. 0. SATI'VA, L. Leaves lance-linear, elongated, rough; panicle race- 

 mose, eontracted ; branches slender, rough ; paleae oblong, scabrous, 

 awnless or often with a terminal awn. 

 CULTIVATED ORYZA. Rice. Common Rice. 

 Fr. Le Riz. Germ. Der Reiss. Span. Arroz. 



Root animal. Calm 2-4 or 5 feet high, smooth, striate. Leaves 9-18 inches Ion? 

 br<>;i iish, rough on the upper surface, smooth beneath ; sheaths striate-nerved, smooth ; 

 ligule elongated (half an inch to three-quarters in length) , erect, tapering to a point,. 

 Panicle oblong, 4-8 or 9 inches in length, with the branches erect. (Ju'er palea nerved 

 or ribbed, hispidly scabrous, often awned, the inner one awnless. 



Cultivated in the Southern States. Native of Asia ? Fl. Fr. 



16* 



