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



nate flower; fertile lemma indurate, minutely papillose-rugose, 

 mucronate or awned, the awn often readily deciduous, the mar- 

 gins slightly inrolled. 



Annual or perennial, often 

 branching grasses, with termi- 

 nal panicles consisting of sev- 

 eral or many spreading or 

 appressed racemes, usually 

 rather closely arranged along 

 the main axis. Species about 

 15, in the warmer parts of the 

 world, mostly in America; 6 

 species in the United States, in 

 the Southern and Southwest- 

 ern States. 



Type species: EriocMoa distachya 

 H. B. K. 



Eriochloa H. B. K., Nov. Gen. and 

 Sp. 1 : 94, pis. 30 and 31. 1816. Two 

 species are described, E. distachya 

 and E. polystachya, and both are 

 figured. The first is chosen as the 

 type. 



Helopus Trin., Fund. Agrost. 103, 

 pi. 4. 1820. The only species men- 

 tioned is H. pilosus, which is the 



FIG. 132. St. Augustine grass, Stenotaphrum secundatum. Plant, X \ ; two views of 

 spikelet and fertile floret, X 10. 



same as Eriochloa punctata. Trinius incorrectly cites Milium ramosum Retz. 

 as a synonym of Helopus pilosus. 



Oedipachne Link, Hort. Berol. 1: 51. 1827. The only species mentioned is 

 Milium punctatum L. (Eriochloa punctata (L.) Hamilt), upon which Oedi- 

 pachne punctata is based. 



