642 GRAMINE^. (grass FAMILY). 



4. A. CAKTOPHYLLEA, L. Culms 5' -10' high, hearing a ven/ diffuse panicle 

 of purplish and at length silver;/ scarious spikelets. — Dry fields, Nantucket: also 

 Newcastle, Delaware, IF. M. Canby. (Nat. from Eu.) 



§3. TAHLODEA, Tries. Glumes boat-shaped, longer than thejlowers: lower 

 palet almost coriaceous, nerveless, its truncate-obtuse tip mostly entire ; the awn 

 borne at or above the middle: grain grooved, flattish, free : alpine perennial. 



5. A. atropurpiirea, Wahl. Culms 8'-15' high, weak; leaves flat, 

 rather wide ; panicle of few spreading branches ; awn stout, twice the length of 

 the palet. — Alpine tops of the White Mountains, and those of Northern New 

 York. Aug. (Eu.) 



52. AREHEWATHERUM, Beauv. Oat-Grass. (PI. 12.) 



Spikelcts open-panicled, 2-flowered, with the rudiment of a third flower ; the 

 middle flower perfect, its lower palet barely bristle-pointed from near the tip ; 

 the lowest flower staminate only, bearing a long bent awn below the middle of 

 the back (whence the name, {mm apprjv, masculine, and adTip,awn): — other- 

 wise as in Avena, of which it is only a peculiar modification. 



1. A. avenAceum, Beauv. Root perennial; culm 2° -4° high: leaves 

 broad, flat; panicle elongated ; glumes scarious, very unequal. (Avena elktior, 

 L. ) — Meadows and lots : absurdly called Grass of the Andes. May - July. 

 (Nat. from Eu.) 



53. HOLCUS, L. (partly). Meadow Soft-Ghass. (PI. 13.) 



Spikelets crowded in an open panicle, 2-flowered, jointed with the pedicels ; 

 the boat-shaped membranaceous glumes enclosing and much exceeding the re- 

 motish flowers. Lower flower perfect, its papery or thin-coriaceous lower palet 

 awnless and pointless ; the upper flower staminate, otherwise similar, but bear- 

 ing a stout bent awn below the apex. Stamens 3. Styles plumose to the base. 

 Grain free. (An ancient name, from oXkos, attractive, of obscure application.) 



1. H. lanXtus, L. (Velvet-Grass.) Perennial, soft-downy and pale; 

 panicle oblong ; upper glume mucronate-awned under the apex ; awn of the 

 staminate flower curved. — Moist meadows. June. (Nat. from Eu.) 



54. HIEEOCHLOA, Gmelin. Holt Grass. (P1. 13.) 



Spikelets 3-flowercd, opcn-panicled ; the flowers all with 2 palets ; the two 

 lower (lateral) flowers staminate only, 3-androus, sessile, often awned on the 

 middle of the back or near the tip; the uppermost (middle) one perfect, short- 

 pedicellcd, scarcely as long as the others, 2-androus, awnless. Glumes equalling 

 or exceeding the spikelet, scarious: palets chartaceous. — Perennials: leaves 

 flat. (Name composed of iepos, sacred, and x^°'^> grass; these sweet-scented 

 Grasses being strewn before the church-doors -on saints' days, in the North of 

 Europe.) 



1. H. boreilis, Tioem. & Schultes. (Vanilla or Seneca Grass.) Pan- 

 icle somewhat one-sided, pyramidal (2' - 5' long) ; peduncles smooth ; staminate 

 flowers with the lower palet mucronate or bristle-pointed at or near the tip ; 



