204 BULLETIN 772, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Phalaris canariensis L. (fig. 121), canary grass, is an annual with 

 ovoid heads, the large spikelets white with green nerves. This species 

 is introduced from Europe, where it is grown for seed, which fur- 

 nishes the canary seed of commerce. 1 Phalaris caroliniana Walt., a 

 perennial of the southern United States, with oblong compact heads, 

 is sometimes cultivated for winter forage. 



9. ORYZEAE, THE RICE TRIBE. 



102. ORYZA L. 



Spikelets 1-flowered, laterally compressed, disarticulating be- 

 low the glumes; glumes 2, much shorter than the lemma, narrow; 

 lemma rigid, keeled, 3-nerved, sometimes awned ; palea similar to the 

 lemma, narrower, keeled, but with no midnerve on the back, 2-nerved 

 close to the margins. 



Annual or sometimes perennial swamp grasses, often tall, with flat 

 blades and spikelets in open panicles. Species about seven, one in 

 tropical America, the others in tropical Africa and Asia. 



Type species : Oryza sativa L. 

 Oryza L., Sp. PI. 333, 1753; Gen. PL, ed. 5, 155. 1754. A single species, 0. 

 sativa, is described. 



The only important species is Oryza sativa L. (fig. 122), or rice. 

 This is cultivated in all tropical and warm countries and is one of the 

 important food plants of the world. There are a large number of 

 varieties, some with awned, some with awnless spikelets. In the 

 United States rice is grown under irrigation on the lowland along 

 the Atlantic -coast of the Southern States, especially in South Caro- 

 lina and Georgia, and more extensively along the Mississippi River 

 in Louisiana and on the prairies of southwestern Louisiana and 

 southeastern Texas. 



103. HOMALOCENCHKUS Mieg. 



(Leersia Swartz.) 



Spikelets 1-flowered, strongly compressed laterally, disarticulating 

 from the pedicel; glumes wanting; lemma chartaceous, broad, ob- 

 long, boat shaped, usually 5-nerved, the lateral pair of nerves close 

 to the margins, these and the keel often hispid-ciliate, the interme- 

 diate nerves sometimes faint ; palea as long as the lemma, much nar- 

 rower, usually 3-nerved, the keel usually hispid-ciliate, the lateral 

 nerves close to the margins, the margins firmly held by the margins 

 of the lemma ; stamens six or fewer. 



Perennial grasses, usually with creeping rhizomes, with flat, sca- 

 brous blades and open panicles, the spikelets nearly sessile along one 



lr The commercial seed may also contain seed of Panicum miliaceum. The seed of 

 Phalaris canariensis is pale yellow, equally convex on both sides, compressed, and some- 

 what pubescent. The seed of Panicum miUaceum is brownish or reddish, much more 

 plump, dorsally flattened on one side, smooth, and faintly nerved. 



