GRAMINEiE. (grass FAMILY.) 617 



panicle. Spikelets greenish, rather large. (Name composed of SpvC", rice, and 

 Syjris, likeness, from a fancied I'esemblaace to that grain.) 



» Sti/les distinct, short : culm leafy to the summit : leaves broad and flat, 



1. O. melanocdrpa, Muhl. Leaves lanceolate, taper-pointed; sheaths 

 bearded in the throat; panicle simple or sparingly branched; awn thrice the 

 length of the blackish palets (nearly 1' long). (Milium raceraosum. Smith. Pip- 

 tatherum nigrum, Toir.) — Rocky woods. Aug. — Culm 2°-3° high. 



» * Styles united below, slender: culms tufted, naked: leaves concave or innolule. 



2. O. asperifblia, Michx. Culms (9'- 18' high) with sheaths bearing a 

 mere rudimentary blade, overtopped by the long and rigid linear leaf from the base ; 

 very simple panicle or raceme few-flowered ; awn 2-3 times the length of the rather 

 hairy whitish paLts. (UrSchne, Trin. ) — Hillsides, &c., in rich woods : common 

 northward. May. — Leaves without keels, rough-edged, pale beneath, lasting 

 through the winter. Squamulse lanceolate, almost as long as the inner palet ! 



3. O. Canadensis, Torr. Culms slender (6' -15' high), the lowest 

 sheaths leaf-bearing ; leaves involute-thread-shaped ; panicle contracted ( 1 ' - 2' 

 long), the branches usually in pairs; palets pubescent, whitish; awn short and 

 very deciduous, or wanting. ( 0. parviflora, iVu«. Slips juncea, McAx. S. Can- 

 adensis, PotV. Milium pungens, Tm-r. Uraehne brevicaudata, Trin.) — Kocky 

 hills and dry plains, W. New England to mountains of Penn., Wisconsin, and 

 northward : rare. May. — Glumes l"-2" long, sometimes purplish. 



15. STIPA, L. Featheb-Gbass. (PI. 8.) 



Spikelets 1-flowered, terete; the flower falling away at maturity (with the 

 conspicuous obconical bearded and often sharp-pointed callus) from the mem- 

 branaceous glumes. Lower palet coriaceous, cylindrical-involute and closely 

 embracing the smaller upper one and the cylindrical grain, having a long 

 and twisted or tortuous simple awn jointed with its apex. Stamens mostly 3. 

 Stigmas plumose. — Perennials, with narrow involute leaves and a loose 

 panicle. (Name from otutti;, tow, in allusion to the flaxen appearance of the 

 feathery awns of the original species. In our species the awn is naked.) 

 « Callus or base of the flower short and blunt: glumes pointless. 



1. S. Kiehardsdnii, Lint Culm m°-i° higli) and leaves slender; 

 panicle loose (4' -5' long), with slender few-flowered branches; glumes nearly 

 equal, oblong, acutish (2j" longJ>^'about equalling the pubescent linear-oblong 

 lower palet, which bears a tortuous awn 6" -8" long. — Pleasant Mountain, 

 near Sebago Lake, Maine, C. J. Sprague, and northwestward. (Flowers rather 

 smaller than in Richardson's plant, as described.) 



« • Callus or base of the flower pungendy pointed, at maturity vilhus-bearded : lower 

 palet slender and minutely bearded at the tip : glumes taper-pointed. 



2. S. avenicea, L. (Black Oat-Gkass.) Culm slender (1°- 2° high) ; 

 leaves almost bristle-form ; panicle open ; palets b/ackish, nearly as long as the glumes 

 (about 4" long) ; the awn bent above, twisted below (2'-3' long). — Dry or sandy 

 woods, S. New England to Wisconsin, and southward. July. 



3. S. sp&rtea, Trin., not of Hook. (Porcupine Gkass.) Culm rather 



