io8 



THE GENERA AND THEIR SPECIES. 



Leersia. Plate i. ORYZEm, 



I. oryzoides 24 in. Cut Grass. Glumes absent; panicle 

 spreading. 



Ditches and streams south of the Thames. Ranging through- 

 out the Northern Hemisphere. August to October. Root 

 perennial, creeping, runners long and white. Stems tufted, erect, 

 smooth ; nodes downy. Leaves linear-lanceolate, flat, striated, 

 thin, edges and keel bristly, glaucous. Sheaths rough, upper- 

 most nearly enclosing panicle ; ligule short, blunt, slightly toothed. 

 Panicle loosely branched, wavy ; rachis rough and striated. 

 Spikelets numerous, unilateral, flat, with one floret, pale green. 

 Glumes absent. Outer palea shorter 

 than inner, concave, keeled, striped ; 

 inner palea linear, keel hairy. Sta- 

 mens short ; anthers long. 



The panicle is wrapped in the 

 upper sheath until the pale green 

 florets open. Its glaucous colour 

 makes it noticeable among the rice 

 fields, and its bristly leaves have 

 given it its Italian name of Asperella. 

 It differs mainly from Oryza (rice) in 

 its aborted glumes which are traceable 



by minute rudiments. There are rive species of the genus, 

 three of which are American ; one, found only in the tropics 

 of both hemispheres, L. hexandra, has six stamens. The 

 British representative was first discovered in Sussex and 

 Hampshire, but is now growing in other southern counties, 

 always in slow running streams, pools, and wet places. 



Leers ia oryzoides. 

 Spikelet. For Floret see p. 61. 



Lepturus. Plate xvi. HORDE/E. 



49. inourvatus 12 in. Hard Grass. Spikelets alternate; stem 

 geniculate. 

 Muddy shores and salt marshes of the Mediterranean and 

 Western Europe. July to September. Root annual, a tuft of 



