556 



MISC. PUBLICATION 200, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



hairs; sterile lemmas villous, 1 mm. 

 long. % — Marshes, river banks, 

 and moist places, New Brunswick to 

 southeastern Alaska (also at Tanana 

 Hot Springs, Alaska), south to North 

 Carolina, Kentucky, Oklahoma, New 

 Mexico, Arizona, and northeastern 

 California; Eurasia. An important 

 constituent of lowland hay from Mon- 

 tana to Wisconsin. Phalaris arundi- 

 nacea var. picta L. Ribbon grass. 

 Blades striped with white. % — 

 Grown for ornament in gardens; also 

 called gardener's garters. 



Phalaris tuberosa var. sten- 

 optera (Hack.) Hitchc. (Fig. 806.) 

 Perennial, with a loose branching, 

 rhizomatous base; culms stout, as 

 much as 1.5 m. tall; panicle 5 to 15 

 cm. long, 1.5 cm. wide, slightly 

 lobed; glumes 5 to 6 mm. long, the 

 keel scabrous, rather narrowly winged 

 on the upper two-thirds; fertile lem- 

 ma 4 mm. long, ovate-lanceolate, 

 acute, appressed-pubescent; sterile 

 lemma usually solitary, about one- 

 third as long as fertile lemma. % 

 — About 1902 there appeared in 

 Queensland, Australia, the source un- 

 known, a species of Phalaris which 

 gave promise of being a valuable 

 forage grass. About 1907 it was dis- 

 tributed from the Toowoomba Bo- 

 tanic Gardens, Queensland. Stapf, 

 of Kew Gardens, identified this grass 

 as P. bulbosa L. Hackel described it 

 as a distinct species, P. stenoptera. 

 It has been grown at the California 

 Experiment Station from seed from 

 South Africa. It has also been culti- 

 vated in Oregon, in Washington, 

 D. C, and in North Carolina, and is 

 spontaneous in Humboldt County, 

 Calif. This differs from typical P. 

 tuberosa of the Mediterranean region 

 in having short vertical or ascending, 

 sometimes branching, rhizomes, the 

 base of the culms little or not at all 

 swollen. It has been called Harding 

 grass. Burbank distributed it as P. 

 stenophylla (error for stenoptera) , calling 

 it Peruvian wintergrass. The name 

 P. bulbosa has been misapplied to P. 



tuberosa L., but true P. bulbosa L. 

 is a species of Phleum (P. tenue 

 Schrad.; P. bulbosum (L.) Richt.). 



TRIBE 9. ORYZEAE 

 119. ORYZA L. Rice 



Spikelets 1-flowered, laterally com- 

 pressed, disarticulating below the 

 glumes; glumes 2, much shorter than 

 the lemma, narrow; lemma rigid, 

 keeled, 5-nerved, the outer nerves 

 near the margin, the apex, sometimes 

 awned; palea similar to the lemma, 

 narrower, keeled, with a median 

 bundle but with no strong midnerve 

 on the back, 2-nerved close to the 

 margins. Annual or sometimes peren- 

 nial swamp grasses, often tall, with 

 flat blades and spikelets in open 

 panicles. Type species, Oryza sativa. 

 Name from oruza, old Greek name 

 for rice. The spikelet in Oryza and 

 Leersia is interpreted by Stapf, Arber, 

 and some others as consisting of 2 

 greatly reduced glumes and 2 subulate 

 sterile lemmas below the single fertile 

 floret. The true glumes, according to 

 this interpretation, are represented by 

 the minute cuplike expansion, some- 

 times distinctly 2-lobed, at the sum- 

 mit of the pedicel, persistent and 

 showing no line of demarcation from 

 the pedicel, the articulation of the 

 spikelet being below the sterile lem- 

 mas, the latter wanting in Leersia. 

 The problem deserves further study. 



1. Oryza sativa L. Rice. (Fig. 

 807.) Annual, or in tropical regions 

 sometimes perennial; culms erect, 1 

 to 2 m. tall; blades elongate; panicle 

 rather dense, drooping, 15 to 40 cm. 

 long; spikelets 7 to 10 mm. long, 3 

 to 4 mm. wide; lemma and palea 

 papillose-roughened and with scat- 

 tered appressed hairs, the lemma 

 from mucronate to long-awned. O 

 — Cultivated in all warm countries 

 at low altitudes where there is suf- 

 ficient moisture; one of the world's 

 most important food plants; some- 

 times adventive near the coast from 

 Virginia to Florida and Texas. 



