166 EATONIA. 



30- EATONIA— Raf. Eebotjlea, KuifTH. 



GENEEIC CHAEACTER. 



Spikelets usually 2-flowered, and with an abortive 

 rudiment "or pedicel, numerous, in contracted or 

 slender panicle, very smooth. Grlumes somewhat 

 equal in length, but very dissimilar, a little shorter 

 than the flowers ; the lower narrowly linear, keeled, 

 1-nerved ; the upper broadly obovate, folded round 

 the flowers, 3-nerved on the back, not keeled, scari- 

 ous-margined. Lower palet oblong, obtuse, com- 

 pressed, boat-shaped, naked, charataceoas ; the 

 upper very thin and hyaline. Stamens 3. Grain lin- 

 ear-oblong, not grooved. Perennial, jslender grasses, 

 with simple and tufted culms, and often sparsely 

 downy sheaths, flat flower leaves, and small greenish 

 (or rarely-purplish) tinged spikelets. 



Named for Professor Amos Eaton, author of a 

 popular manual of the botany of the United States, 

 which was for a long time the only general Avork 

 available for students in this country, and of other 

 popular treatises. 



Oray. 



1. E. Obtusata, O-ray. Dry soil, Pennsylvania to 

 Wisconsin, and southward: Flowers in June and 

 July. 



2. E. Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania Eatonia). Is a 

 common grass in moist woods anri meadows through- 

 out the Northern States. Flowers in June and 

 July. 



