92 TRIANDRIA DIGYNIA 



1. L. yibgikica, IVilUL Panicle simple and slender ; lower branches 

 expanding; spikolcts closely appressed; pales sparingly cilinte on the 

 keel. Beck, Bot. /i. 419. Specim. Gray, Cram. 2. ?io. 103. 



Virginian Lekhsia. Vulgo — White grass. 



Bool perennial. Culm %io 3 feet long, slender, often oblique, or decumbent, 

 geniculate, branched, striate, smooth ish : nodes retrorsely pilose. Leaves linear- 

 lanceolate, acute, keeled, striate, roughish : sheaths deeply striate, scabrous with 

 minute retrorse prickles in the groores, rarely pilose, lower ones loose; ligule 

 short, obliquely truncate. Panicle terminal, slender, finally much exseried, 

 somewhat seeund ; branches few and solitary, 1 >wer onea spreading, or divaricate. 

 Spikelets <n\ short pedicels, racemose on the 1i.uk hes, closely appn esed, some- 

 what imbricated and unilateral, incurved ami partly eml racing the rachis, or 

 sommon peduncle. Loner palea remarkably keeled and boat-shaped, compress- 

 ed, mucronate, with a prominent nerve on the outer side, scabrous with short 

 acute scattered bristles, sparingly ciliate on the keel; upper palea Ian e-linear, 

 compressed, rather longer than tin lower. Stamens JM (1, Ion:). 



Hob. Moist woodlands; borders of shaded swamps: frequent Fl. Aug. Fr. Sept. 

 Obs. I have examined a number of flowers, and constantly found two stamens. 



2. L. oryzoipks, Sw. Panicle branched, diffuse, often sheathed at 

 base ; spikelets rather spreading ; pale® conspicuously ciliate on the 

 keel. Beck, Bot. p. 419. Specim, Gray, Gram.2. no. 104. 

 OurzA— or Rick-liki: Leersia. Vulgo— Cut grass. Wild Rice, 



Root perennial, creeping. Culm 3 to 5 feet high, striate, scabrous with minute 

 retrorse prickles: nodes pubescent. Leaves lanceolate, acuminate, keeled, nerv- 

 ed, retrorsely and sharply scabrous, ciliate on the margin: sheaths nerved, very 

 rough by reason of retrorse prickles in the grooves : ligul* short, retuse. Panicle 

 much branched; branches spreading in all directions, Oexuose, the lower ones in 

 threes or fours. Spikelets ellipUc-oblong, pedicellate, a little spreading when 

 mature, greenish white. Palea compressed, peciinate-ciliatc on the keels- 

 the lower one boat-shaped, 3-nerved ; the upper one linear, i-nerved, a little Ion- 

 er. Stamens 3. * 



ITab. Swamps ; and along sluggish rivulets : common. Fl. Aug. Fr. Sept. 

 Obs. Neither of these Leersias isofany value to the farmeiy-and this one Is ra 



f f Flowers Diclinous .■ Stamens 6. 



pa« v 62, ZIZANI A.A. Mat. Gen. 74,7, 



[A Greek name ; supposed to have been originally applied to LoliumJ 



Moxoicous : Staminate and Pistillate Flowers in the <=ame Panirl, 

 Stagnate SpikeUt l-flowcred. Glumes 0, or very ntinute ^n,e„ u 



