7* 



THE GENERA AND THEIR SPECIES. 



Arundo. Plate xxxiii. FESTUCE&. 



101. phragmites 10 ft. Reed. Panicle brown and silky. 



Banks of streams : range world-wide. July and August in 

 the Northern Hemisphere. Root perennial, stoloniferous, ex- 

 tensively creeping. Stem simple or branched, geniculate or 

 straight, leafy ; nodes numerous and smooth. Leaves lanceolate, 

 somewhat unilateral, firm, flat, transversely wrinkled, points 

 frequently split, keeled at base. Sheaths round, overlapping, 

 shorter than leaves, deeply split ; ligule a tuft of erect hairs. 

 Panicle erect, diffuse, branches alternate, fasciculate, compound, 

 lower branches with long, white, silky hairs, rachis angular. 



Spikelets numerous, imbricated, linear- 

 lanceolate, florets three or six, hairy, 

 awnless. Glumes unequal, inner twice 

 as long as outer, concave, acute, 

 ribbed, keeled. Outer palea lanceo- 

 late, thrice as long as inner palea, 

 pointed, smooth, edges involute, ribs 

 three ; inner palea short, linear, flat, 

 fringed towards apex, margins invol- 

 ute and purplish. 



The Reed with its chocolate florets 

 is familiar to all, growing where no 

 other useful plant will grow, flourishing in mud with perhaps 

 a foot of water over its roots, and averaging perhaps six 

 feet in height, though occasionally reaching as much as twelve. 

 In the fens it grows in extensive patches known as reed-ronds, and 

 similar tracts occur in many parts of Europe, notably on the 

 Danube, where, as elsewhere, they form happy hunting grounds 

 for the ornithologist 



Arundo phragmites. 

 Spikelet. For Floret see p. 52. 



Avena. Plate xiv. AVENEJE. 



41. fatua 36 in. Wild Oat. Spikelets drooping; ligule 



short. 



42. pvatensis i3 in. Perennial Oat. Spikelets erect; ligule 



pointed. 



