GRASS FAMILY. 37 



taceous, or at least always firmer in texture than the bracts, awnless; lower 

 bractlet sometimes similar in texture to the bracts, sometimes short-awned. 



Spikelets without any involucre of bristles or spines. 



Bractlet (in ours) apparently 1 only, enclosing a perfect flower; spikelets in 1-sided 

 racemes or spikes which (in ours) are arranged in pairs, or (rarely) in panicles. 



2. L'aspalum. 



Bractlets 2, the upper subtending a perfect flower, the lower empty or subtending a 



staminate flower; spikelets sometimes in 1 -sided racemes or spikes; these digitate 



or in panicles 3. Panicum. 



Spikelets subtended by an involucre consisting (if from one to many bristles or spines 

 (sterile branches) which are sometimes grown together. 

 Spikelets deciduous; bristles persistent 4. CHAETOCHLOA. 



2. PASPALUM L. Millet-grass. 



Inflorescence of few digitate, or many panicled, spike-like racemes. Spike- 

 lets in 1 to 4 rows upon one side of a flattened, jointless rachis, jointed upon 

 their short pedicels, plano-convex, obtuse or acute, awnless, 1-flowered; bracts 

 apparently 2 or 3 owing to the presence of an empty bractlet which resem- 

 bles a bract in size and texture and takes its place; lower bract often obsolete, 

 when present minute, 1-nerved, slender, and placed on the flat side of the spike- 

 let; upper much larger, few r -nerved. Bractlet (in ours) apparently 1 only, 

 really 2 ; lower empty, membranaceous, resembling and nearly equaling the 

 upper bract and performing the function of the absent or reduced lower bract, 

 3-nerved; flower-enclosing bractlet roundish or ovate, coriaceous, rarely mucro- 

 nate or with a few minute hairs at the apex, large, convex, and partly enclos- 

 ing the palea. Palea smaller than its bractlet, roundish or ovate, coriaceous, 

 flattish. Scales 2, wedge-shaped or quadrate, emarginate. Stamens 3. Ovary 

 oblong, smooth; styles elongated. Achene enclosed by the indurated bractlet 

 and palea. (The Greek name for Millet-grass.) 



1. P. distichum L. Kxot-grass. Eootstock perennial, widely creeping; 

 stems y 2 to 2 ft. high; sheaths somewhat crowded, smooth or hairy, bearded or 

 ciliate at the throat; blades flat, sharp-pointed, linear-lanceolate, 1% to 6 in. 

 long, 1 to 3% lines wide, sparingly hairy above, glabrous below, somewhat 

 glaucous; spikes 2 (rarely 3 or 4), 1 to 4 in. long, sub-erect, densely flowered, 

 one sessile, the other shortly pedicellate; rachis % to 1 line wide; spikelets I 1 /* 

 lines long, ovate, acute; those in the middle of a row overlapping about % 

 their length; bracts more or less pubescent. 



A tropical and sub-tropical species, now naturalized in marshy places through- 

 out the State. Somewhat resembling Bermuda-grass but readily distinguished 

 by its stouter habit and by usually bearing only 2 spikes to each inflorescence; 

 appearance much modified by habitat. 



3. PANICUM L. Panic-grass. 

 Leaves often hirsute or hispid with stiff hairs arising from tubercles between 

 the nerves. Panicle loose and spreading, or close and spikelike; when the 

 spikelets are crowded in pairs on one side of flattened spikelike branches, one 

 spikelet is sessile the other pedicellate. Spikelets without involucre or bristles 

 at the base, 1 or 2-flowered (when 2-flowered the lowest gtaminate), rarely 

 awned, jointed on the pedicels below the bracts so that these fall away with the 

 flower at maturity; bracts 2 (or 1 only); the lower smaller, often minute or 

 obsolete; the upper equaling the perfect flower. Bractlets 2; the upper enclos- 

 ing the palea and a perfect flower; the lower resembling the upper bract and 

 empty or bearing a staminate flower or empty palea, the latteT when present 

 very thin and hyaline; upper bractlet and its palea alike, coriaceous or cartila- 



