GEAMINE^. (grass FAMILY.) 619 



++ ++ Upper glume shorter than the lower: perennials, simple-stemmed, 2° -4° high. 



6. A. purpur^cens, Poir. Glabrous; leaves rather involute; flowers 

 in a ( 1 0' - 1 8') long spiked panicle ; awns much longer than the flower, the middle 

 one about 1' long. (A. racembsa, Muhl. A. Geyeriana, iS^eurf.) — Massachu- 

 setts to Michigan, Illinois, and southward : common. 



7. A. lan&ta, Poir. Tall and stout ; leaves tardily involute, rough on the 

 tipper side, rigid; sheaths woolly; panicle (l°-2° long) spike-like or more com- 

 pound and open; middle awn (1' long) longer than the flower. — Salisbury, 

 Maryland, W. M. Canby, and southward. 



» « Awns united below into one, jointed with the apex ofthepalet: root annual 



8. A. tuberculdsa, Nutt. Culm branched below (6' -18' high), tumid 

 at the joints ; panicles rigid, loose ; the branches in pairs, one of them short and 

 about 2-flowered, the other elongated and several-flowered ; glumes ( I ' long, in- 

 cluding their slender-awned tips longer than the palet; which is tipped with 

 the common stalk (about its own length) of the 3 equal divergently-bent awns 

 (lJ'-2' long) twisting together at the base. — Sandy soil, E. Massachusetts to 

 New Jersey ; also Wisconsin, Illinois, and southward. 



17. SPARTINA, Schreber. Cord or Maksh Geass. (PI. 9.) 



Spikelets 1-flowered, without a rudiment, very much flattened laterally, spiked 

 in 2 ranks on the outer side of a triangular rhachis. Glumes strongly compressed- 

 keeled, acute, or bristle-pointed, mostly rough-bristly on the keel ; the upper one 

 much larger and exceeding the pointless and awnless palets, of which the upper 

 is longest. Squamulse none. Stamens 3. Styles long, more or less united. — 

 Perennials, with simple and rigid reed-like culms, from extensively creeping 

 scaly rootstocks, racemed spikes, very smooth sheaths, and long and tough 

 leaves (whence the name, from OTrapTiv)], u, cord, such as was made from the 

 bark of the Spartium or Bi'oom.) 



* Spikelets compactly imbricated, very rough-hispid on the heels: spikes (2' -4' long) 

 more or less peduncled: culia and elongated leaves rigid. 



1. S. oynosuroides, Willd. (Fresh-watee Cord-Gkass.) Culm rather 

 slender (2° -6° high) ; leaves narrow (2° -4° long, J' or less wide below), taper- 

 ing to a very slender point, keeled, flat, but quickly involute in drying, smooth 

 except the margins ; spikes 5 - 20, scattered, spreading ; rhachis rough on the 

 margins ; glumes awn-pointed, especially the upper, the lower equalling the lower 

 palet, whose strong rough-hispid midrib abruptly terminates below the membra- 

 nSus apex. (Trachynbtia cynosuroides, Michx. Limnetis, Pers.) — Banks of 

 rivers and lakes, especially northward. Aug. — Glumes strongly serrulate-hispid 

 on the keel ; the awn of the upper one about i' long. Palets somewhat unequal. 

 — Certainly distinct from the next, to which, in strictness, the Linnseau name 

 belongs. 



2. S. polystkchya, Willd., Muhl. (Salt Eeed-Geass.) Culm tall and 

 stout (4° -9° high, often 1' in diameter near the base) ; leaves broad (}/ to 1'), 

 roughish underneath, as well as the margins ; spikes 20-50, forming a dense oblong 

 raceme (purplish) ; glumes barely mucronate, the lower half the length of the equal 

 palets, of which the rough-hispid midrib of the lower one reaches to the apex. 



