THE GENERA AND THEIR SPECIES. 



91 



cumbent or floating, then ascending, stout, smooth. Leaves flat, 

 lanceolate, flaccid, folded in bud, rounded at base, blunt or bifid 

 at apex, ribless with median lines, keeled, lower ones floating. 

 Sheaths flat, smooth, striated, loose, 

 ligule short, rounded or torn. Panicle 

 erect, branches in threes or fives, 

 unequal, half-whorled, spreading, an- 

 gular. Spikelets numerous, pendulous, 

 small, florets two or more. Glumes 

 unequal, broad, truncate, thin, inner 

 glume the larger, ribs three, purplish. 

 Outer palea large, obtuse, notched at 

 apex, ribs three ; inner palea small, 

 with two ribs, and enclosing stamens. 



Catabrosa aquatica. 

 Varieties — Spikelet. For Floret see p. 53. 



C. littovaUs. Leaves and sheaths small, only one floret. 



C. minor. Under four inches in height ; only one 



floret. 



Cynodon. Plate xv. CHLORIDES. 



47. dactylon 8 in. Dog's-tooth. Spikes digitate. 



Sandy shores of south of England, a native of w^arm climates. 

 July and September. Root perennial, tough, widely creeping, 

 fibres smooth. Stem at first creep- 

 ing, then erect, matted, geniculate, 

 leafy ; nodes smooth, all near the 

 base. Leaves flat, involute, taper- 

 ing, ribbed, rigid, blunt, hairy. 

 Sheaths long, smooth, covering 

 all the nodes ; ligule a hairy tuft. 

 Spikes purple, digitate, divergent, 

 under two inches in length, and 

 from three to five in number. 

 Spikelets awnless, unilateral, alter- 

 nate, with one floret. Glumes 



Cynodon dactylon. 



nearly equal, open, lanceolate, Spikelet. For Floret see p. 50. 



