GKASS FAMILY. 4iVi 



Perennial. Culm 3 -5 feet high. Leaves 5-12 inches long, lance-linear, keeled, deep 

 green ; sheaths smooth ; ligule ovate, obtuse. Panicle erect, finally a little spreading, 

 glaucous. Glumes acute or acuminate with flattened tips, whitish with 3 green nerves. 

 Palece pilose with appresscd hairs. Grain ovate, dark brown. 



Swampy places and borders of rivulets : common. June -July. 



Obs. This fine-looking deep green grass frequently arrests the atten- 

 tion on account of its luxuriant growth and promising appearance ; but 

 it is of little or no agricultural value. When cut early and made into 

 hay, cattle, it is said, will eat it if they can get nothing better. A va- 

 riety, with the leaves striped with white, is known in gardens as the 

 Striped or Ribbon Grass. When this variety is allowed to grow in wet 

 situations it loses its peculiarity. 



2. P. CANARIEN'SIS, L. Panicle spike-like, oval ; glumes wing-keeled ; 



neutral rudiments smooth. 



CANARY PHALARIS. Canary Grass. 



Annual. Culm 1-2 feet high, smooth. Leaves pale green and glaucous ; the sheaths 

 somewhat inflated. Glumes nearly twice as long as the palea?, yellowish-green. 

 Waste places and in cultivation. Native of Europe. July -September. 



Obs. This is sometimes cultivated for the seed which is the favorite 

 food of Canary Birds ; it is also naturalized to some extent and is fce- 

 quently seen in waste places. 



27. PAS'PALUM, L. PASPALUM. 



[Greek, Paspalos; said to be an ancient name for Millet.] 



Spikelets racemose-spiked, usually in 2 rows, on one side of a flattened 

 continuous rachis, jointed with their very short pedicels, plano-convex 

 and nearly orbicular. Glume and empty palea few-nerved. Perennials 

 with erect smoothish culms and single, digitate or racemed spikes. 

 1, P. seta'ceum, MX. Culm slender ; leaves hairy ; spike mostly soli- 

 tary on a long terminal peduncle. 

 SETACEOUS PASPALUM. 



Culm 1 - 2 feet high, setaceously slender, often purplish below and somewhat hairy. 

 Leaves 2-6 inches long, hairy on both sides ; sheaths smooth, pilose at throat. Spike 2-4 

 inches in length, very slender, often with another on a short peduncle from the same 

 sheath, sometimes others from the lower sheaths. 



Sandy fields and road-sides : throughout the United States. August. 



Obs. This grass, together with Panicum sanguinale, L., is said by Dr. 

 Short to supplant and take the place of the Kentucky Blue Grass, at 

 the West, in all exposed and sunburnt situations, after midsummer. * 



28. PAN'ICUM, L. PANIC GRASS. 



[Supposed from the Latin, Panis, bread ; which some species afford.] 

 Spikelets panicled or racemose, sometimes spiked. Glumes unequal ; the 

 lower one short or minute, sometimes wanting. Lower Jloret neutral or 

 stamiuate, rarely awned, mostly consisting of a single palea which re- 

 sembles the upper glume. Upper Jloret perfect, coriaceous, awnless, en- 



