GENERA OF GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 
51 
13. Diarina Raf. 
Spikelets few-flowered, the rachilla disarticulating above the 
glumes and between the florets; glumes unequal, acute, shorter than 
the lemmas, the first 1-nerved, the 
second 3 to 5 nerved ; lemmas char- 
taceous, pointed, 3-nerved, the 
nerves converging in the point, the 
upper floret reduced; palea char- 
taceous, 2-nerved, obtuse, at ma- 
turity the lemma and palea widely 
spread by the large turgid beaked 
caryopsis with hard shining peri- 
carp. 
Perennials, with slender rhi- 
zomes, broadly linear, flat blades, 
long-tapering below, and narrow, 
few-flowered panicles. Species 
two, one in eastern Asia and one 
in the eastern United States. 
Type species : Festuca diandra Michx. 
Diarina Rat, Med. Repos. 5: 352. 
1808. Rafinesque bases a new genus on 
Festuca diandra Michx. (not Moench, 1794). He renames the species D. festu- 
coides. Beauvois 1 spells the name Diarrhena, crediting it to " Shmal " [Rafin- 
esque-Schmalz] and renames the single species D. americana. 
1 Ess. Agrost. 142, pi. 25, f. 1. 1812. 
