GEAMiNE^. (gkass familt.) 635 



all over ; awn only one third the length of the lance-oblong flower ; lower palet 

 7-9-nerved, much longer and larger than the upper; culm slender (l|°-3° 

 high) ; leaves and sheaths conspicuously or sparingly hairy. (B. ciliktus, MM. 

 B. purgans, Torr. Fl. N. Y. ) — Dry ground : common northward. June, July. 

 — This is in the herbarium of Linnajus under the name of B. ciliatus, but is 

 not the plant he described ; thence has arisen much confusion. 



§2. SCPIEDONORUS, Beauv., Fries. Lower palet somewhat convex, but heeled 

 on the bach and laterally/ more or less compressed, at least above; fiowers soon 

 separating from each other: lower glume l-nerved, the upper 3-nerved, or with an 

 obscure additional pair. 



* Perennial, tall (3° -5° high) : flowers oblong or lanceolate. 



5. B. ciliatus, L. Panicle compound, very loose, the elongated branches 

 at length divergent, drooping ; spikelets 7 - 12-flowered ; lower palet tipped with 

 an awn half to three fourths its length, silky with appressed hairs near the 

 margins, at least below (or rarely naked), smooth or smoothish on the back 

 (B. Canadensis, Michx. B. pubescens, Muhl.) ; — or, in var. purgans (B. 

 purgans, Z. .'), clothed all over with short and fine appressed hairs, — River- 

 banks and moist woodlands : common. July, Aug. — Culm and large leaves 

 (3'' -6" wide) smooth or somewhat hairy; the sheaths in the larger forms often 

 hairy or densely downy near the top. Variable, comprising several forms, in- 

 cluding both the Linnsean species ; for which the present name is preferable to 

 the inapplicable purgans, taken from Feuillee's South American species. 



6. B. ASPEE, L. Culm slender and panicle smaller ; spikelets 5 - 9-ilowered ; 

 lower palet linear-lanceolate, scarcely keeled, hairy near the margins, rather 

 longer than the awn; sheaths and lower leaves hairy or downy. — Bethel, 

 Maine, in fields along the river-bank, W. Boott. (Nat. from Eu.) 



# » Annual or biennial (10' -30' high) : flowers slender. 



7. B. STERins, L. Panicle open ; spikelets of 5 - 9 rather distant and 7- 

 nerved roughish linear-awl-shaped long-awned flowers (awn 1' long); leaves 

 rather downy. — Waste places and river-banks, E. Massachusetts, New York, 

 and Pennsylvania : rare. June. (Nat. from Eu. ) 



39. UNIOLA, L. Spike-Gkass. (PI. 11.) 



Spikelets closely many-flowered, very fiat and 2-edged ; one or more of the 

 lowest flowers sterile (neutral) and consisting of a single palet. Glumes lance- 

 olate, compressed-keeled. Lower palet coriaceo-mcmbranaceous, strongly lat- 

 erally compressed and keeled, striate-nerved, usually acute or pointed, entire, 

 enclosing the much smaller compressed 2-kceled upper one and the free laterally 

 flattened smooth grain. Stamen 1 (or in U. paniculata 3). — Upright smooth 

 perennials, growing in tufts from strong creeping rootstocks, with broad leaves 

 and large spikelets in an open or spiked panicle. (Ancient name of some plant, 

 a diminutive of unio, unity. ) 



» Spikelets large (^'-2' long), ovate or oblong, 9-30flowered: panicle open. 



1. U. panieulkta, L. Xeaw« narrow, when dry convolute ; spihdeti ovate, 

 short-pedicelled ; flowers glabrous, bluntish, several of the lower sterile; the fcr- 



