MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 273 



wanting; second glume minute; lemma narrow, acuminate or 



short-awned, sca- 

 brous, o — In- 

 troduced in New- 

 foundland, New 

 Hampshire (Wa- 

 terville) and New 

 York (Fulton 

 County) ; Europe. 



Figuee 537.— Lepturus cylindricus. Plant, X Vi\ rachis 

 joint and spikelst, X 5. (Parish 4446, Calif.) 



LEPTTJRUS R. Br. 



Spikelets 1 -flowered, 

 embedded in the hard, 

 cylindric articulate 

 rachis and falling at- 

 tached to the joints ; first 

 glume wanting except on 

 the terminal spikelet, the 

 second glume closing the 

 cavity of the rachis and 

 flush with the surface, 

 indurate, nerved, acu- 

 minate, longer than the 

 joint of the rachis; lem- 

 ma with its back to the 

 rachis, hyaline, shorter 

 than the glume, 3-nerved ; 

 palea a little shorter 

 than the lemma, hyaline. 



Low annuals or peren- 

 nials, with slender cylin- 

 dric spikes. Type spe- 

 cies, Lepturus repens 

 (Forst.) R. Br. Name 

 from Greek leptos, 



slender, and oura, tail, alluding to the slender inflorescence. 



