MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



991 



Capillary. Very slender or hairlike. 



Capitate. In a globular cluster or head. 



Carinate. Keeled. Said of glumes, lemmas, 

 and other parts when flattened laterally, 

 with a sharp keel. 



Cartilaginous. Hard and tough but elastic, 

 like cartilage. 



Caryopsis. The grain or fruit of grasses. The 

 seed coat is grown fast to the pericarp as 

 in the grain of wheat or corn. In a few 

 grasses the seed is free within the pericarp, 

 as in Sporobolus and Eleusine. 



Cespitose. Tufted; several or many stems in a 

 close tuft. 



Chartaceous. Having the texture of writing 

 paper. 



Ciliate. Fringed with hairs on the margin 

 (like an eyelash). Ciliolate. Minutely 

 ciliate. 



Circinate. Coiled from the top downward. 



Clavate. Club-shaped; gradually thickened 

 upward, and more or less circular in cross 

 section. 



Cleistogamous. Applied to flowers or florets 

 when fertilized without opening. Cleisto- 

 gene. A cleistogamous flower, such as 

 found in Triplasis and Danthonia. 



Collar. The area on the outer side of a leaf 

 at the junction of sheath and blade. 



Column. The lower undivided part of the 

 awns of certain species of Aristida; the 

 lower twisted segment of the awn in 

 A ndropogoneae. 



Compact. Said of closely flowered inflo- 

 rescences. Compare dense. 



Compressed. Flattened laterally, as the com- 

 pressed spikelets of Uniola latifolia and 

 the compressed sheaths of Andropogon 

 virginicus. If the organ is also sharply 

 keeled, it is said to be compressed-keeled. 



Conduplicate. Folded together lengthwise 

 with the upper surface within, as in the 

 blades of many grasses. 



Continuous. Said of the rachis or other organ 

 which does not disarticulate. The opposite 

 of articulate or disarticulating. 



Contracted. Said of inflorescences that are 

 narrow or dense, the branches short or 

 appressed. The opposite of open or 

 spreading. 



Convex. Rounded on the surface. Said espe- 

 cially of glumes and lemmas that are 

 rounded on the back instead of keeled. 



Convolute. Rolled longitudinally. Said mostly 

 of blades, one edge being inside and the 

 other outside. 



Cordate. Heart-shaped. Said mostly of the 

 base of blades. Cordate-clasping. Heart- 

 shaped at base with the lobes overlapping 

 around the stem. 



Coriaceous. Leathery in texture. 



Corm. The hard swollen base of a stem. In 

 Melica the corm is a single enlarged lower 

 internode. In Panicum bulbosum several 

 internodes are involved. Compare bulb. 



Crown. The persistent base of a tufted peren- 

 nial herbaceous grass. Also the hard ring 



or zone at the summit of some species of 

 Stipa. The "pappuslike crown" of dis- 

 sected teeth is mentioned under Pap- 

 pophorum. 



Culm. The jointed stem of grasses. 



Cuneate. Wedge-shaped with the narrow part 

 below. 



Cuspidate. Tipped with a sharp short rigid 

 point. 



Deciduous. Falling away, as the awn of 

 Oryzopsis, the spikelets of some species 

 with articulate pedicels, and the blades of 

 some bamboos. The opposite of persistent. 



Decumbent. Curved upward from a horizon- 

 tal or inclined base. Said of stems or culms. 



Decurrent. Extending down an organ below 

 the insertion. Said especially of ligules 

 decurrent on the margins of the sheath. 



Dehiscence. Spontaneous opening of an 

 organ, as the opening of anthers to let out 

 the pollen. 



Dense. Said of inflorescences in which the 

 spikelets are crowded. The opposite of 

 open or loose. Compare compact. 



Depauperate. Reduced or undeveloped. Said 

 especially of impoverished or dwarfed 

 plants below the average size. 



Diffuse. Open and much-branched. Said of 

 panicles. 



Digitate. Several members arising from the 

 summit of a support. Said especially of 

 racemes or spikes from the summit of a 

 peduncle, as in Digitaria and Cynodon. 



Dioecious. Unisexual, the two kinds of 

 flowers on separate plants, as in Buchloe. 



Disarticulating. Separating at maturity. 

 Compare articulate. 



Distichous. Conspicuously two-ranked, as 

 the leaves of Distichlis and Zea. 



Divaricate. Widely and stiffly divergent as 

 the branches of certain open panicles (e.g., 

 Oryzopsis hymenoides). 



Dorsal. Relating to the back of an organ. 



Dorsiventral. With a distinct upper and lower 

 surface. Said of shoots bearing broad flat 

 blades in a horizontal position, the blades 

 turned into the same plane. 



Drooping. Erect to spreading at base but 

 inclining downward above, as the branches 

 of a panicle. 



Ellipsoid. An elliptic solid. Said of the shape 

 of panicles, spikelets, and fruits. 



Elliptic. Shaped like an ellipse. Said of 

 blades and other flat surfaces. 



Elongate. Narrow, the length many times 

 the width or thickness. 



Emarginate. Notched at the apex. 



Equitant. Astride. Said of approximate com- 

 pressed-keeled sheaths or blades at the 

 base of a culm that infold each other like 

 the leaves of Iris. 



Erose. Irregularly notched at apex as if 

 gnawed. Said of glumes and lemmas. 



Excurrent. Running beyond. The midnerve 

 is excurrent from the lemma as an awn in 

 many grasses. 



Exserted. Protruding, The awns of some 



