136 ZIZANIA. 



2. Leersia, Oryzoides, (Rice Cut Grass, False 

 Rice, White Grass.) Very wet places; common, flow- 

 ers in August ; possesses no agricultural value. 



3. Leersia, Lenticularis, (Fly Catch Grass.) Low 

 grounds, Virginia, Illinois and southward ; peren- 

 nial ; flowers in July; no value. 



2. ZIZANIA— Gronovis. Watek or Indian Rice. 



GENERIC CHAEACTER. 



Flowers monsecious ; the staminate and pistillate 

 both in ] flowered spikelets, in the same panicle. 

 Glumes wanting, or rudimentary and forming a little 

 cup. Palets herbaceo, membranaceous, convex, 

 awnless in the sterile, the lower one tipped with a 

 straight awn on the fertile spikelets ; stamens 6 ; 

 stigmas pencil form — large, often reed-like, water 

 grasses ; spikelets jointed, with the club-shaped ped- 

 icils, very decidous. 



(Adopted from Zizanion, the ancient name of some 

 wild grain). 



1. ZizANiA, Aquatioa (Indian Rice, Water Oats). 

 This grass grows wild in the Southern States, also 

 in the Northwestern ; seeds used for food for Indians. 

 Common in swampy borders of streams and in shal- 

 low waters ; flowers in August. 



2. ZiZania, Miliacea (Prolific Rice). Found in 

 Ohio and South, and grows from six to ten feet high 

 in shallow water ; flowers in August. 



