GENERA OF GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



51 



13. DIAEINA Raf. 



Spikelets few-flowered, the rachilla disarticulating above the 

 glumes and between the florets; glumes unequal, acute, shorter than 



the lemmas, the first 1-nerved, the 

 second 3 to 5 nerved ; lemmas char- 

 taceous, pointed, 3-nerved, the 

 nerves converging in the point, the 

 upper floret reduced; palea char- 

 taceous, 2-nerved, obtuse, at ma- 

 turity the lemma and palea widely 

 spread by the large turgid beaked 

 caryopsis with hard shining peri- 

 carp. 



Perennials, with slender rhi- 

 zomes, broadly linear, flat blades, 

 long-tapering below, and narrow, 

 few-flowered panicles. Species 

 two, one in eastern Asia and one 

 in the eastern United States. 



Type species : Festuca diandra Michx. 

 Diarina Raf., Med. Rpos. 5: 352. 

 1808. Rafinesque bases a new genus on 



FIG. 18. Catabrosa aquatica. Plant, 



Festuca diandra Michx. (not Moench, 1794). He renames the species D. festu- 

 coides. Beauvois a spells the. name Diarrhena, crediting it to " S-hmal " [Rafin- 

 esque-Schmalz] and renames the single species D. americana. 



i Ess. Agrost. 142, pi. 25, f. 1. 1812. 



