60 Bulletin VII. 1. 



Along streams and in wet woods. July —September, common. 

 Of no agricultural value. 



2. Leersia oryzoides Sw. Rice Cut-grass. 



Plate XVII. Figure 67. 



A rather stout, rough and usually much-branched grass two to 

 three or four feet high, with flat leaves and an open pale green or 

 straw-colored panicle. Nodes usually bearded. Sheaths auricled 

 on the sides at the apex, strongly scabrous, the points of the min- 

 ute spines which lie in the depressions of the striae, directed down- 

 wards; ligule firm-membranaceous, about a line long; leaf-blade 

 five to ten inches long, three to six or seven lines wide, very 

 acute, contracted and often pubescent at the base, scabrous on 

 both surfaces, the margins very rough, with minute sharp spines 

 which in the lower part of the leaf are directed toward the base 

 and in the upper part are directed forward or toward the apex. 

 Panicle six to ten inches long, the slender ascending branches two 

 to four inches long, naked below, flower-bearing toward the ends. 

 Spikelets two to two and one-half lines long, about three-fourths of 

 a line broad, loosely imbricated; apex of the glumes and palea ab- 

 ruptly pointed, the keels strongly ciliate and with short scattered 

 hairs on the sides. Within the lower sheaths may be found cleis- 

 togamic or hidden fruiting spikelets. 



Common along streams, wet borders of thickets, etc. Of no 

 recognized agricultural value. 



3. Leersia lenticularis Michx. Large Cut-grass. 



Plate XVII. Figure 66. 



A rather stout, branching perennial two to three feet high, from 

 a creeping scaly root-stock, with widely spreading broad leaves 

 and diffuse panicles. Nodes smooth or sometimes downwardly 

 bearded. Sheaths firm, striate, smooth or more often rough, with 

 downwardly-pointing sharp prickles, which lie in the grooves of 

 the striae, auricled at the apex; ligule firm-membranaceous, about a 

 line long, smooth or sometimes pilose on the back; leaf-blade four 

 to ten inches long, four to eight lines wide, acute contracted to- 

 ward the base, often pubescent on the upper surface, at least to- 

 ward the base and on the back where the blade joins the sheath. 

 Panicle four to eight inches long, the branches solitary or in pairs, 

 widely spreading or finally deflexed, flower-bearing near the ex- 

 tremities. Spikelets on very short scabrous pedicels, broadly oval, 

 strongly flattened laterally, two and one-half to three lines long and 

 about two lines broad, closely imbricate, the glume and palea 

 strongly bristly ciliate along the keels. 



West Tennessee (S. M. Bain) August — September. The leaves 

 are sometimes striped with longitudinal white bands, as in the cul- 

 tivated ribbon-grass, { Phalaris aruniinacea picta.) 



