16 Bulletin VII. 1. 



I. Tripsacum dactyloides Linn. Gama or Sesame-grass. 



Plc\te I. Figure 1. 



Flowering stems solid, three to eight feet high, becoming more 

 or less branched. Spikes four to eight or ten inches long, solitary 

 or two to three together. When solitary, as is usual on the 

 branches, the female portion of the spike is cylindrical. 



This grass is occasionally seen in rich soils along rivers and 

 creeks. It grows in large tufts, producing a great mass of broad 

 leaves, which, when young and succulent, are eaten with avidity 

 by stock. When abundant, gama affords a large amount of natural 

 foraofe. and is valuable to this extent. 



Tribe II. ANDROPOGOXE.^. 



Spikelets in spike-like racemes, two at each joint of the articu- 

 late rachis, one sessile and hermaphrodite, one pedicellate, this 

 last hermaphrodite, staminate, neuter, or reduced to the pedicel 

 alone. Glumes usually four, the first and second empty, larger 

 and much firmer in texture than the others, the third usually 

 empty, sometimes with a staminate flower in its axil very rarely 

 awned, the fourth or flowering glume hyaline, usually awned; 

 awn usually twisted or geniculate. 



This tribe contains about four hundred species, divided among 

 twenty-nine genera, of which the genus Andropogo?i, with one hun- 

 dred and ninety species, is by far the largest and probably the 

 most important. Sugar Cane belongs to this tribe in the genus 

 Sacchariim. Our best known representative of the Andropogoneae 

 is the common Broom Sedge, Andropogon Virginicus. In the same 

 genus are now classed our species of Sorghum. The members of 

 the tribe are distributed throughout the tropical and warmer re- 

 gions of both hemispheres. 



4. MISCANTHUS Andersson. 



Spikelets all alike, one-flowered, hermaphrodite, in pairs along 

 the continuous branches of a terminal spreading panicle, the ra- 

 chilla articulated below the empty glumes. Glumes four, the first 

 two membranaceous nearly equal, empty; the third less firm in 

 texture, empty: the fourth or flowering glume, hyaline, more or 

 less bifid at the apex and usually awned between the teeth. Palea 

 hyaline. Stamens three. 



Rather tall, usually showy grasses with the numerous slender ra- 

 cemes of the terminal panicle more or less spreading. 



Species seven, in Eastern Asia, Japan, and South Africa. One 

 species introduced and cultivated here for ornament. 



I. Miscanthus Sinensis Anderss. (Eulalia Japonica Trin.) 



K handsome showy grass used for the adornment of lawns, etc_ 

 It has long been known to florists under the name of Eulalia Ja- 



