GENERA OF GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 209° 
spikelet terete, angled at maturity: glumes wanting; lemma charta- 
ceous, 3-nerved, tapering into a long slender awn; palea 2-nerved, 
closely clasped by the lemma; grain cylindric, as meh as 2 cm. long. 
Tall annual or perennial aquatic grasses, with flat blades and large 
terminal panicles, the lower branches spreading, bearing the pendu- 
lous staminate spikelets, the upper branches ascending, at maturity 
erect, bearing appressed pistillate spikelets, the staminate spikelets 
early deciduous, the pistillate spikelets tardily deciduous. Species 
three, one in eastern Asia, two in North America. 
Type species: Zizania aquatica L. 
Zizania L., Sp. Pl. 991, 1758; Gen. Pl., ed. 5, 427. 1754. Linneeus describes 
two species, Z. aquatica and Z. terrestris. The citation in the Genera Plantarum 
is to Gronovius. ‘ Zizania Gron. virg. 189” is given as a Synonym by Linnzeus 
under Z. aquatica; hence the latter is the type species. The second species, from 
Malabar, does not belong to Zizania. The director of the Kew Royal Botanic 
Gardens states that the plate upon which it is based (Rheede, Hort. Malab. 12: 
pl. 60) represents Scleria elata Thwaites. 
Fartis Adans., Fam. Pl. 2: 37, 557. 1768. Based on Zizania L., which was 
not Zizania of the ancients. 
Hydropyrum Link, Hort. Berol. 1: 252. 1827. A single species, H. esculen- 
tum, based on Zizania palustris L., is included. 
Melinum Link, Handbuch Hrkenn. Gewiichse 1: 96. 1829. A single species, 
M. palustre, based on Zizania palustris L., is included. 
Ceratochaete Lunell, Amer. Midl. Nat. 4: 214. 1915. A new name proposed 
for Zizania L., “not Zizanion of the New Testament,” which is the tares of 
Scripture. 
Zizania palustris L. (Pl. XVI; fig..125), Indian or wild rice, is an 
annual marsh grass growing in the Eastern and Northern States, 
often over extensive areas. The seeds were used by the aborigines for 
food and are still used to some extent by some of the northern 
tribes of Indians. Wild rice is important as a food and shelter for 
water birds. It is sometimes planted for this purpose in marshes on 
game preserves. Zizania aquatica L. differs in having narrower 
blades, shorter culms, and less spreading panicles. This form, found 
from Maine to Minnesota, may be a variety rather than a distinct 
species... At first Linneeus did not distmguish between the narrow- 
leaved and broad-leaved forms, but based the name aquatica on a 
specimen ” of the narrow-leaved form. Later (1771) he described the 
broad-leaved form as Zizania palustris. The Asiatic Z. latifolia 
Turcz. is a perennial with rhizomes and stolons. 
106. Luzio“ta Juss. 
Spikelets unisexual, 1-flowered, disarticulating from the pedicel, 
the staminate and pistillate flowers in separate panicles on the same 
plant; first glume and palea wanting; second glume and lemma about 
equal, thin, several to many nerved, lanceolate or oblong ; stamens 
several (“6 to 18”); BIg lowe, plumose; grain free, globose, 
smooth. 
1 See Smiths. Misc. Coll. 6817: 35. 1918. 
2See Hitchcock, Contr. U. 8. Nat. Herb, 12: 124. 1908. 
97769°—19—Bull. 772 14 
