596 FLORA OF TEXAS. 



leaves 2-4' long, with the sheaths shorter than the joints ; 

 spikes I'-l^' long. 



SPOROBOLUS, Brown. Drop-seed Grass. 



Tough wiry and tufted or creeping perennial grasses, 

 with narrow leaves, and 1-fiowered awnless s^nkelets, dis- 

 posed in open, or crowded in spiked panicles ; glumes 2, 

 membranaceous, unequal, the lower one shorter; palece 2, 

 mostly longer than the glumes, and of the same texture ; 

 stamens 3 ; styles 2 ; grain oval or globose, loose in the 

 thin membranaceous pericarp, deciduous ; panicles exserted. 



* Panicles open. 



S. JUNCEUS, Kunth. {Wire Grass.) Panicle nan'o^Vf 

 the short and spreading branches whorled ; spihelets on 

 one side of the branches, short-stalked ; glumes smooth, 

 the upper one acute, 2-3 times longer than the lower, and 

 about equal to the obtuse paleae ; culms (l°-2° high) erect; 

 leaves chiefly radical, filiform and elongated, involute, 

 those of the culm short and remote. (Agrostis juncea, 

 Michx.) Dry pine-barrens, common. April and May, 

 and often in October. 



** Panicles spiked. 



S. Virginicus. Kunth. Culms creeping, short-jointed, 

 the short and mostly clustered branches erect ; leaves 

 2-ranked, soon convolute, short and rigid; panicle sm-eiW, 

 lanceolate; glvmes nearly equal, acute, rather longer than 

 the paleae. (Agrostis Virginica, L.) Saline marshes and 

 banks along the coast. July and August. Flowering 

 stems 6-12' high ; leaves 2'-4' long ; panicle l'-2' long, 

 pale or purple. 



AGROSTIS, L. Bei^t Grass. 



Tufted vsually tender grasses, with flat and narrow 

 leaves; the small 1-flowered spikelets racemose on the hair- 

 like clustered branches of the open panicle, on thickened 



