GENERA OF GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 
63 
The giant reed is one of the largest of the herbaceous grasses, its 
stem being as much as 20 feet tall. Ordinarily it grows in cultiva- 
tion to a height of 6 to 10 feet. The rhizome is thick and knotty. 
The blades are flat, 2 to 3 inches broad (smaller on the branches), 
and distributed rather equally along the culm, the distichous ar- 
rangement being conspicuous. The handsome feathery panicle is 1 
to 2 feet long, the spikelets being about one-half inch long. In 
the Southwest this is sometimes called by the Mexican name carrizo. 
The stems of the giant reed are used for making clarionet and organ- 
pipe reeds. 
Two large cultivated grasses or reeds allied to Arundo are Gyne- 
rium and Cortaderia. 
Gynerium Humb. and Bonpl., PI. Aequin. 2: 105, pi. 115. 1809. 
The single species described and figured is G. saccharoides Humb. 
and Bonpl. This species, now called G. sagittatum (Aubl.) Beauv., 
is a giant dioecious grass as much as 30 or 40 feet tall, with culms 
clothed below with old sheaths from which the blades have fallen, 
sharply serrulate blades, commonly 6 feet long and about 2 inches 
wide (forming a great fan-shaped summit to the sterile culms), and 
pale, plumy, densely flowered panicles 3 or more feet long, the main 
axis erect, the branches drooping; spikelets several-flowered, the 
pistillate with long-attenuate glumes and smaller long-silky lemmas, 
the staminate with shorter glumes and glabrous lemmas. This grass, 
found along streams in tropical America, is cultivated occasionally 
in greenhouses under the name of uva grass. 
Cortaderia Stapf, Gard. Chron. III. 22: 396. 1897. Stapf in- 
cludes five species in the genus, the first of which is C. argentea. 
The genus is technically designated on the page indicated in the 
citation, but on a preceding page (p. 378) he says, "Taking Gyne- 
rium argenteum as representative of the Cortaderas, . . .". Hence 
Gynerium argenteum is selected as the type. This species, called 
C. argentea (Nees) Stapf, is an erect dioecious perennial reed, grow- 
ing in large bunches, with numerous long, narrow, basal blades, very 
rough on the margins, and stout flowering culms 6 to 10 feet high, 
with beautiful feathery, silvery white or pink panicles or plumes 1 to 
3 feet long; spikelets 2 to 3 flowered, the pistillate silky with long 
hairs, the staminate naked; glumes white and papery, long and 
slender; lemmas bearing a long slender awn. This grass, called 
pampas grass, is a native of Argentina. It is cultivated as a lawn 
ornamental, being hardy in the warmer parts of the United States. 
Pampas grass is cultivated commercially in southern California for 
the plumes, which are used for decorative purposes. The plants 
grow here to enormous size, as much as 20 feet in height. 
