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



Olyra L., Syst. Nat., ed. 10, 2: 1261. 1T59. A tropical American 

 genus, one species of which, 0. latifolia- L. (fig. 153) is credited 

 to Florida by Small in his Flora of the Southeastern United States. 

 The record is doubtful. 



A glabrous perennial, bamboolike in aspect, as much as 15 feet 

 tall, the branches straggling over shrubs; blades petiolate, asym- 

 metrically lanceolate-oblong, as much as 8 inches long and 2 inches 

 wide; panicles 4 to 6 inches long, the branches stiffly ascending or 

 spreading, each bearing a single, large, long-acuminate, pistillate 

 spikelet at the thickened summit and several small slender-pediceled 

 staminate spikelets along the branch. 



13. ANDROPOGONEAE, THE SORGHUM TRIBE. 



128. IMPERATA Cyrillo. 



Spikelets all alike, awnless, in pairs, unequally pedicellate on a 

 slender continuous rachis, surrounded by long silky hairs; glumes 

 about equal, membranaceous ; sterile lemma, fertile lemma, and palea 

 thin and hyaline. 



Perennial, slender, erect grasses, with terminal narrow woolly pani- 

 cles. Species seven, in the tropical regions of both hemispheres ; two 

 species in the United States, three others in tropical America. 



Type species : Lagnrus cyUndrieus L. 



Imperata Cyrillo, PI. Rar. Neap. 2: 26. 1792. A single species is described, 

 /. arundinacea Cyrillo, but the genus is based upon Lagurus cylindricus L. 1 



Our species are Imperata l>rasUiensis Trin., in southern Florida, 

 and /. hookcri Rupr. (fig. 154), from western Texas to southern 

 California. They are not found in sufficient abundance to be of 

 agricultural value. 



129. MISCANTHTJS Anderss. 



Spikelets all alike, in pairs unequally pedicellate along a slender 

 continuous rachis ; glumes equal, membranaceous or somewhat coria- 

 ceous; sterile lemma a little shorter than the glumes, hyaline; fertile 

 lemma hyaline, smaller than the sterile lemma, extending into a deli- 

 cate bent and flexuous awn ; palea small and hyaline. 



Robust perennials, with, long flat blades and terminal panicles of 

 aggregate spreading slender racemes, our species with a tuft of 

 silky hairs at the base of the spikelet, surrounding it and of about 

 the same length as the glumes, the palea of the short-pedicellate spike- 

 let about one-fourth as long as the lemma, the palea of the long- 

 pedicellate spikelet obsolete. Species about eight, in southeastern 

 Asia and South Africa ; one cultivated in the United States. 



1 Cyrillo gives the generic heading thus : " Imperata. Lagurus cylindricus Linn., Sp. 

 PI. 120, n. 2." 



