BULLETIN 772, XT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 

 TRIBE 14, TEIPSACEAE. 



celets unisexual, the staminate in pairs, or sometimes in threes 

 2-flowered, the pistillate usually single, 2-flowered, the lower floret 

 sterile, imbedded in hollows of the thickened articulate axis and fall- 

 ing attached to the joints, or inclosed in a thickened involucre or 

 sheath or, in Zea, crowded in rows on a thickened axis (cob) ; glumes 

 membranaceous or thick and rigid, awnless; lemmas and palea 

 hyaline, awnless. Plants monoecious. 



This small tribe of seven genera is scarcely more than a subtribe 

 of Andropogoneae. It is also known as Maydeae. 



Key to the genera of Tripsaceae. 



la. Staminate and pistillate spikelets in separate inflorescences, the first 



in a terminal tassel, the second in the axils of the leaves 2 



2a. Pistillate spikes distinct, the spikelets embedded . in the hardened 



rachis, this disarticulating at maturity 142. ETJCHLAENA. 



2b. Pistillate spikes grown together forming an ear. the grains at 



maturity much exceeding the glumes 143. ZEA. 



Ib. S-taminate and pistillate spikelets in separate portions of the same 



spike, the pistillate below 3 



3a. Spikes short, the 1 or 2 flowered pistillate portion inclosed in 



a beadlike sheathing bract 144. Coix. 



3b. Spikes many-flowered, the pistillate portion breaking up into 



several 1-seeded joints; no beadlike sheathing bract 141. TEIPSACUM. 



DESCRIPTIONS OF THE GENERA. 



1. BAMBOSEAE, THE BAMBOO TRIBE. 



1. ARTJNDINARIA Michx. 



Spikelets few to many flowered, large, compressed, the rachilla 

 disarticulating above the glumes and between the florets ; glumes un- 

 .equal, shorter than the lemmas, the first sometimes wanting ; lemmas 

 acute or acuminate or mucroiiate, faintly many-nerved; palea about 

 as long as the lemma, prominently 2-keeled. 



Shrubs or tall reeds, with woody perennial branching culms, flat 

 blades with petioles articulate with the sheaths, and loose racemes 

 or panicles. Species about 25, in the Tropics of both hemispheres; 

 2 species in the southeastern United States. 



Type species: Arnndinarin macrosperma Michx. 



Arundinaria Michx., Fl. Bor. Amer. 1 : 73. 1803. One species described. 



Miegin Pers., Syn. PI. 1:101. 1805. A single species, based on Arundinaria 

 macrosperma Michx., is included. 



Macronax Raf., Med. Repos. ser. 2. 5: 353. 1808. Based on "The Arundi- 

 naria of Michaux." 



Our two species, Anmdinaria tecta (Walt.) Muhl. (fig. 1) and A. 

 macrosperma (PL I), are the only native representatives of the tropi- 

 cal tribe Bamboseae, or Bambuseae, the bamboos. Our species are 

 known, respectively, as small and large cane. Both flower infre- 



