406 GBAMIKE^E. (GKASS FAMILY.) 



3. A. saceharoides, Swz. Stems slender, I to 3 feet high : spikes in 

 pairs (or fours) on short mostly exserted and loosely paniculate peduncles, densely 

 /lowered, very silky with long bright white hairs: fertile flower monandrous, 

 with a capillary awn. — A. argenteus, DC. Probably including also (at least 

 in S. Colorado) A. Jamesii, Torr. Colorado and southward. 



9. CHRYSOPOGON, Trin. Indian Grass. Wood Grass. 



A tall simple perennial, with glaucous linear-lanceolate leaves and yellow- 

 ish or russet-brown and shining spikelets. 



1. C. nutans, Benth. Stem 3 to 5 feet high, terete : panicle narrowly 

 oblong; the perfect spikelets at length drooping, clothed, especially towards 

 the base, with fawn-colored hairs, lanceolate, shorter than the twisted awn ; 

 sterile spikelets small and imperfect, deciduous, or reduced to a mere plumose- 

 hairy pedicel. — Sorghum nutans, Gray. Southern Colorado, and common in 

 the Atlantic States. 



10. F HAL A BIS, L. Canary Grass. 



Ours is a perennial, with broad flat leaves, branched panicle, and glumes 

 not winged on the back. a 



1. P. arundinacea, L. Stem 2 to 4 feet high, reed-like : outer glumes 

 open at flowering, 3-nerved, thrice the length of the fertile flower : rudimen- 

 tary flowers reduced to a minute hairy scale or pedicel. — Wet grounds and 

 river banks across the continent, especially northward. 



11. HIEEOCHLOA, Gmelin. Holt Grass. Vanilla Grass. 



Perennials with flat leaves, the dried plants giving off a pleasant vanilla- 

 like odor. 



1. H. borealis, R. & S. Stem 1 to 2 feet high, with short lanceolate 

 leaves : panicle somewhat one-sided, pyramidal ; spikelets chestnut-color : 

 staminate flowers strongly hairy-fringed on the margins ; the flowering glume 

 mucronate or bristle-pointed at or near the tip : fertile flower hairy-fringed 

 at the tip. — From California to Colorado and far northward, thence eastward 

 through the northern border States and Canada to Labrador. 



12. ALOPECTTRUS, L. Foxtail Grass. 



Perennials, with the flower clusters contracted into a cylindrical and soft 

 dense spike, whence the name. 



1. A. alpinus, Sm. Stem erect, smooth, 6 inches to a foot high: upper 

 leaf much shorter than its inflated sheath : outer glumes rather acute, 3-ribbed, 

 covered on the back with long dense white hairs : flowering glume about 

 equalling the outer ones, the awn exserted more than half its length, slightly bent 

 but not twisted. — English Fl. i. 81. High mountains of Colorado and north- 

 ward. 



1 It is probable that P. Canarkntis, L., is sparingly naturalized within our range, the 

 seed being a favorite food of cage-birds. It may be known by its very dense spike-like 

 panicle and wing-keeled outer glumes. 



