156 CYNODON. 



crowded, naked raceme. Glumes lance awl-shaped, 

 keeled, almost equal, rather longer than the some- 

 what equal membranaceous palets, of which the 

 lower is cylindrical-involute, with the . midrib pro- 

 duced from just below the 2-cleft apex into a straight 

 and slender, bristle-like awn ; the upper with the 

 abortive rudiments at its base. Stamens 3, Stigmas 

 pencil form, purple. Root perennial. Leaves short 

 and flat, thickisli, 1 to 3 inches long. 



Name from ot two G-reek words' — gymnos naked, 

 and pogon beard — alluding to the reduction of the 

 abortive flower to a bare awn. 



1. G. Racemosus (Naked Beard Grass). Pine 

 barrens of New Jersey to Yirginia and southward. 

 Flowers in August and September. 



2. G. Trefolius (Short-leaved beard Grass). Sussex 

 county, Delaware, and southward. 



21. CYNODON— Richard. Beemtjda or Scutch 



Grass. 



geneeic chaeactek. 



Spikelets 1-flowered, with a mere naked, short, 

 pedicilled rudiment of a second flower, imbricate 

 spiked on one side of a flattish rhachis ; the spikes 

 usually digitate at the naked summit of the flowering 

 culms. Gkimes keeled, pointless, rather unequal. 

 Palets pointless and awnless ; the lower larger, boat- 

 shaped. Stamens 3. Low, diffusely-branched, and 

 extensively-creeping perennials, with short, flattish 

 leaves. 



