746 



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



cent, or glabrescent; sheaths glabrous, 

 the lower narrow, somewhat keeled; 

 blades 3 to 10 mm. wide, scaberulous, 

 the upper reduced; panicle 10 to 27 

 cm. long, 2.5 to 4 cm. wide, purplish 

 brown, not conspicuously woolly; 

 spikelets 7 to 8 mm. long; glumes 

 acuminate, scaberulous, the first 

 sometimes with a few long hairs on 

 the back, the second without hairs 

 on the inflexed margins, the basal 

 hairs about half as long as the spike- 

 let; awn terete, straight, 1.5 to 2.3 

 cm. long, straight; rachis joint and 

 pedicel somewhat angled, very sparse- 

 ly short-pilose. Ql — Peaty, sandy, 

 moist meadows and swales and mar- 

 gin of swamps, Delaware, Maryland, 

 Virginia, Georgia, and Florida (near 

 Gainesville) ; insufficiently known, ap- 

 parently rare. 



Figure 1134. — Erianthus coarctatus var. elliottianus. 

 Racemes, X %. (Hitchcock, N. C.) 



Erianthus coarctatus var. el- 

 liottianus Fernald. (Fig. 1134.) 

 Taller and more robust, resembling 

 E. brevibarbis, but nodes appressed- 

 pubescent, upper blades mostly re- 

 duced, the brownish panicle mostly 

 smaller; spikelets 7 mm. long, more 

 slender, as in E. coarctatus, the first 

 glume usually with a few long hairs 

 on the back, occasionally the second 

 glume likewise, the margins without 

 long hairs; awns, rachis joints, and 

 pedicels as in E. coarctatus. % — 

 Wet ground, swales, and pond bor- 

 ders, North Carolina to Florida; 

 Louisiana. 



This group is insufficiently known; 



the size of upper blade and pubes- 

 cence on spikelets is not constant. 



6. Erianthus giganteus (Walt.) 

 Muhl. Sugarcane plumegrass. (Fig. 

 1135.) Culms 1 to 3 m. tall, ap- 

 pressed-villous below the panicle, the 

 nodes appressed-hispid, the hairs 

 deciduous; sheaths and blades from 

 nearly glabrous to shaggy appressed- 

 villous, the blades 8 to 15 mm. wide; 

 panicle 10 to 40 cm. long, oblong or 

 ovoid, tawny to purplish; spikelets 

 5 to 7 mm. long, sparsely long-villous 

 on the upper part, shorter than the 

 copious basal hairs; awn 2 to 2.5 

 cm. long, terete, straight or slightly 

 flexuous; rachis joint and pedicel 

 long-pilose. % (E. saccharides 

 Michx.) — Moist soil, Coastal Plain, 

 New York to Florida and Texas, 

 north to Kentucky; Cuba. A common 

 form with relatively small compact 

 panicles has been segregated as E. 

 compactus Nash; a robust form with 

 long, copiously silky, tawny panicle, 

 as E. tracyi Nash; and a form with 

 rather looser panicle, the lower rachis 

 joints longer than the spikelets, and 

 pubescent foliage was described from 

 Florida as E. laxus Nash. 



Erianthus ravennae (L.) Beauv. 

 Ravenna grass. (Fig. 1136.) Culms 

 stout, as much as 4 m. tall; panicle 

 as much as 60 cm. long, silvery 

 (purplish in var. purpurdscens (An- 

 derss.) Hack.); spikelets awnless or 

 nearly so. % — Cultivated for 

 ornament; hardy as far north as 

 New York City; native of Europe. 

 Established along irrigation ditches 

 near Phoenix, Ariz. 



152. MICROSTfiGIUM Nees 



(Included in Eulalia Kunth in Manual, 

 ed. 1) 



Spikelets in pairs, alike, perfect, 

 on an articulate rachis, 1 sessile, 1 

 pedicellate; racemes 1 to several, 

 digitate or approximate; first glume 

 sulcate. Straggling annuals with flat 

 lanceolate blades. Type species, M. 

 willdenovianum Nees {M. vimineum 

 (Trin.) A. Camus). Name from Greek 

 micros, small, and stege, cover, prob- 

 ably alluding to the minute lemma. 



