GRASS FAMILY. 381 



12. GLYCE'KIA, R. Brown. MANNA GRASS. 



[Greek, Glykeros, sweet ; in allusion to the sweet taste of the seeds.] 



Spikes several- or many-flowered ; florets oblong, early deciduous by the 

 breaking up of the rachis into joints, leaving the persistent, unequal, 

 1 - 3-nerved glumes behind. Palece nearly equal, naked, somewhat char- 

 taceous ; the lower one mostly 7-nerved, usually blunt and scarious at 

 the apex, rounded on the back ; the upper one 2-keeled. Stamens 2-3. 

 Stigmas plumose, the hairs dichotomous. Grain oblong, free. Perenni- 

 al, smooth semi-aquatic grasses with creeping bases or root-stocks and 

 sheaths usually nearly entire. 



1. G, flu'itans, R. Brown. Spikelets linear, terete, pale, 7-13-flow- 



ered, appressed on the branches of the long racemose narrow panicle ; 



paleae minutely scabrous; the lower oblong, entire or obscurely 3-lobed, 



rather longer than the 2-toothed upper one. 



FLOATING GLYCEKIA. Manna Grass. 



Fr. Manne de Prusse. Germ. Essbarer Schwingel. 



Root perennial, creeping. Culm 4- 6 feet high, erect or ascending, compressed, glabrous. 

 Leaves 5-8 or 10 inches long, lance-linear, striatc, scabrous on the margin and upper sur- 

 face ; sheatJis nerved, smooth ; ligule very large, oblong, membranaceous, acute or some- 

 times obtuse. Panicle slender, 12-15 inches long, usually partly concealed in the sheath 

 of the upper leaf, the branches mostly simple. Spikelets about an inch long, nearly 

 sessile, racemose on the branches and appressed. Glumes membranaceous, nerveless. 

 Upper palea blunt at apex, the margins folded in, and a green keel at each apparent 

 border. Caryopsis oblong, sulcate on the upper side. 



Wet low grounds, margins of shallow pools, &c. Fl. June. Fr. July. 



Obs. This stout semi-aquatic grass is common to both hemispheres. 

 The seeds have a sweetish taste, and in some parts of the old world, 

 where they are known by the name of Manna Seeds they are used by 

 the poorer peasantry in making soups and gruels. In the United States 

 the country people, as yet, are happily ignorant of all such expedients, 

 and will long continue so, if they have industry enough to cultivate 

 more valuable grains. The herbage of this plant is eaten by stock ; 

 but it is so much confined to wet localities that it is scarcely entitled 

 to be enumerated among the grasses interesting to American farmers. 



13. PO'A, L. MEADOW-GRASS. 



[An ancient Greek name for herbage or pasture.] 



Spikelets ovate or oblong, compressed, few- or several-flowered. Glumes 

 mostly shorter than the florets ; the lower ones smaller. Lower palea 

 membranaceo-herbaceous with a scarious margin, keeled or convex, 

 pointless, 5-nerved (the intermediate nerves obscure or obsolete), the 

 principal nerves with cobweb-like wool at their base ; upper palea mem- 

 branaceous, 2-keeled. Stamens 2-3. Stigmas simply plumose. Grain 

 oblong, free. Culms caespitose ; the leaves smooth, usually flat and soft. 



* Root annual : branches of the short panicle single or in pairs. 



