652 • GRAMINE^E. (GRASS FAMILY.) 



3. A. argenteus, Ell. Culms rather slender (l°-3° high) ; spikes in 

 pairs (rarely in fours) on short mostly exserted and loosely paniculate peduncles, 

 densely flowered (l'-2' long), very silky with long bright white hairs. (A. argyrkus, 

 Schultes. A. Ellidttii, Chapm.) — Delaware ( W, M. Canby), Virginia, near the 

 coast, and southward. Sept., Oct. 



4. A. VirgillicuS, L. Culm flattish below, slender (2° -3° high), spar- 

 ingly short-branched above, sheaths smooth ; spikes 2 or 3 together in distant oppressed 

 clusters, shorter than their sheathing bracts, weak (1' long), the spikelets loose on the 

 filiform rhachis, the soft hairs dull white. (A. vaginatus, Ell., a form with larger 

 and inflated sheaths.) — Sandy soil, E. Massachusetts to Virginia, Illinois, and 

 southward. Sept., Oct. 



5. A. macroUTUS, Michx. Culm stout (2° -3° high), bushy -branched at 

 the summit, loaded with very numerous spikes forming thick leafy clusters; sheaths 

 rough, the uppermost hairy; flowers nearly as in the preceding; the sterile 

 spikelet of each pair wholly wanting, its pedicel slender and very plumose. — 

 Low and sandy grounds, New York to Virginia, near the coast, and southward. 

 Sept., Oct. 



66. SORGHUM, Pcrs. Broom Corn. (PI. 14.) 



Spikelets 2-3 together on the ramifications of an open panicle, the lateral 

 ones sterile or often reduced merely to their pedicels ; only the middle or ter- 

 minal one fertile, its glumes coriaceous or indurated, sometimes awnless : other- 

 wise nearly as in Andropogon. Stamens 3. (The Asiatic name of S. vulgare, 

 the Indian Millet, to which species belongs Guinea-Corn, Broom-Corn, 

 the Sweet Sorghum, and other cultivated races.) 



1. S. nutans, Gray. (Indian Grass. Wood-Grass.) Boot perennial ; 

 culm simple (3° -5° high), terete; leaves lineardanceolate, glaucous; sheaths 

 smooth ; panicle narrowly oblong, crowded or loose (6' - 12' long) ; the perfect 

 spikelets at length drooping (yellowish or russet-brown and shining), clothed, 

 especially towards the base, with fawn-colored hairs, lanceolate, shorter than the 

 twisted awn ; the sterile spikelets small and imperfect, deciduous, or reduced to 

 a mere plumose-hairy pedicel. (Andropogon nutans, L.) — Dry soil : common, 

 especially southward, where it runs into several marked varieties or perhaps 

 species (S. avenaccum, nutans, and secundum, Chapman). Aug. -Oct. 



