92 Bulletin VII. 1. 



awnless or with one to several straight (rarely bent) awns which 

 are either terminal or borne just below the apex. 



This is the largest tribe in the order, numbering sev^enty six 

 genera and about seven hundred and twenty-five species. It con- 

 tains the most important meadow grasses of the temperate re- 

 gions, as well as the more prevalent grasses of the higher moun- 

 tains within the tropics. The genus Poa, which includes Kentucky 

 blue-grass, Texas blue-grass, etc., numbers one hundred species, 

 and an equal number of species are included in the genus Era- 

 grostis. The Fescues number eighty species and the tribe takes 

 its name from this genus — Festuca. Orchard grass, Dactylis glo- 

 merata, is a well-known example of this tribe. 



42. GYNERIUM H. B. Plant, ^quin. II., 112, t. 115. (1809.) 



Spikelets loosely two- to many-flowered, dioecious, in large ter- 

 minal panicles, rachilla articulated above the empty glumes, 

 usually long-pilose, at least in the fertile spikelets. Empty glumes 

 two, narrow and very long, acuminate-pointed. Flowering glumes 

 very narrow, produced into long subulate points, the back and 

 margins clothed with long silky hairs. Flowering glumes in the 

 staminate spikelets usually smooth. Tall, reed-like, perennial 

 grasses, with solid culms and very long, narrow leaves, which are 

 chiefly from the base, and ample, showy terminal panicles. 



Species three, in the warmer regions of South America. One 

 species cultivated in Tennessee for ornament only. 



I. Gynerium argenteum Nees. Pampas-grass. 



Culm six to ten feet high, with numerous, very long, narrow 

 leaves and silvery-\vhite panicles one to two and a half feet long. 



This grass is highly decorative for lawns, and the large plume- 

 like panicles are used for dry bouquets. In California it is culti- 

 vated for these "plumes," which command a ready market in the 

 larger cities. The grass is a native of Brazil and the Argentine Re- 

 public, where the long, tough leaves are employed in the manufac- 

 ture of paper, and a decoction of the stout rhizomes is valued as a 

 diuretic. 



43. ARUNDO Linn. Sp. PI. 120 (1753-) 



Spikelets two- to many-flowered, in ample terminal panicles; 

 rachiUa articulated above the empty glumes and between the 

 florets, smooth. Florets crowded, hermaphrodite, or the upper or 

 lower staminate. Empty glumes two, narrow, a little unequal, 

 three-nerved, smooth, acute, or acuminate, about the length of the 

 spikelet. Flowering glumes thin, membranaceous, three-nerved, 

 two-toothed at the apex, and mucronate between the teeth, long- 

 pilose on the back. Palea hyaline, two-keeled, shorter than its 

 glu ne. Grain smooth, enclosed within the palea and glume, but 



