MONOCOTYLEDONOUS OR ENDOGENOUS PLANTS. G05 



BRIZOPYRUM, Link. 



A loiv and rigid perennial dioecious grass, growing in 

 saline miirshes, with linear-subulate involute distichous 

 leaves, and many -flowered compressed spikelets, crowded in 

 a nearly simple spike ; glumes and ^ja^eo? smooth, some- 

 what coriaceous, obtuse, compressed, not keeled, the loiver 

 ones several-nerved; stamens 3; stigmas 2 ; grain oblong, 

 free. 



B. SPICATUM, Hook. Rootstoclcs long and creeping; 

 cnlms 1° higli ; leaves spreading, rigid ; 2-4' long, smooth, 

 like the imbricated sheaths ; spikelets oblong, 7-15-flow- 

 ered. (Uniola spicata, Ell.) Low sandy shores and 

 marshes. August and September. 



POx\, L. Meadow Grass. 



Grasses with tufted culms, smooth flat and tender leaves, 

 and compressed few-flowered spikelets in loose or contracted 

 panicles ; glumes unequal, sliorter than the flowers ; lower 

 palea nearly membranaceous, keeled, scarious on the mar- 

 gins, awnless, 5-nerved, the three more prominent nerves 

 mostly hairy or Avoolly below ; upper palea 2-toothed, fall- 

 ing at maturity with the lower one ; stamens 2-3 ; stigmas 

 plumose ; grain free. 



* Branches of the panicle single, or by pairs. 



P. ANNUA, L. Annual; culms tender, spreading, 6-10' 

 high; leaves linear, 3 -6' long, l^"wide; panicle ovate, 

 the smooth branches at length reflexed ; spikelets ovate, 

 about 5-flowered ; glumes obtuse or emarginate, half as 

 long as the sparsely hairy obtuse flowers. February and 

 March. 



P. COMPRESSA, L. Culms' ascending from a creeping 

 base, geniculate, and, like the sheaths, compressed ; panicle 

 contracted, 1-sided, the short erect branches 2-4 in a clus- 



