CATCH FLY GRASS. RICE. 



27 



Cut Grass. 



Fig. 11. 



opened in Fig. 8, with its stamens 

 and pistil in Fig. 9, a part of the 

 stigma highly magnified in Fig. 10, 

 and a seed in Fig. 11. It is a del- 

 icate-looking and beautiful grass, 

 but possesses no agricultural value, 

 and may be rooted out like the 

 preceding. 



CATCH FLY GRASS (Leersia lenti- 

 cularis) is smoothish, stem and 

 panicle erect, palea3 flat, with keel 

 and veins very hairy. Pursh ob- 

 served it catching flies like the 

 Venus' fly-trap (Dionea muscipula), 

 the paleae resembling the leaves 

 of that plant in structure. Fig. 8 

 will serve to show how, by a 

 motion similar to that of the sen- 

 sitive-plant, an insect might be 

 entrapped. Found in wet, low 

 grounds in Ohio, Illinois, Virginia, 

 and south. It is perennial, and flow- 

 ers in July. 



RICE ( Oriza sativa) is nearly al- 

 lied to this genus. See chapter on 

 the grasses cultivated for their 

 seeds. 



2. ZIZANIA. 



Indian Rice. 



Staminate and pistillate flowers both in one flowered 

 spikelets in the same panicles; glumes wanting or rudi- 

 mentary, forming a little cup ; palege convex, awnless in 

 the staminate flowers, the lower tipped with a straight 

 awn in the pistillate ; stamens six, stigmas pencil-formed. 

 Stout, often reedy aquatic grasses. 



