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



thin 7-nerved lemma and 5-nerved palea, the stigmas long and slender. 

 A slender, branching, aquatic grass, probably perennial, the leaves 

 floating; staminate spikelets in small few-flowered terminal racemes; 

 pistillate spikelets in few-flowered racemes in the axils of the leaves. 

 Type species, Hydrochloa caroliniensis. Name from Greek hudor, 

 water, and chloa, grass, alluding to the habitat. 



1. Hydrochloa caroliniensis Beauv. (Fig. 1148.) Culms up to 1 

 m or more long, freely branching, leafy; blades flat, 1 to 3 cm long, 

 1 to 2 mm wide, in vigorous shoots as much as 6 cm long and 5 mm 

 wide; spikelets inconspicuous and infrequent, the staminate about 4 

 mm long, the pistillate about 2 mm. Qi — Ponds and slow-flowing 

 streams, sometimes in sufficient abundance to become troublesome. 

 South Carolina to Florida and Louisiana (fig. 1149). Eaten by live- 

 stock. Lemma 5- or 7-nerved; palea 4- to 7-nerved. (Weatherwax.) 



117. PHARUS L. 



Spikelets in pairs, appressed along the slender spreading, nearly 

 simple panicle branches, one pistillate, subsessile, the other stami- 

 nate, pedicellate, much smaller than the 

 pistillate spikelet; fertile lemma subin- 

 durate, terete, clothed, at least toward the 

 beaked apex, with thick uncinate hairs; 

 blades petioled (the petiole with a single 

 twist reversing the upper and under sur- 

 faces of the blade), the nerves running 

 from midnerve to margin, with fine trans- 

 verse veins between the nerves. 

 Perennials with broad flat elliptic or 

 oblanceolate blades and terminal panicles 

 with rather few stiffly spreading branches 

 breaking readily at maturity, the terete 

 pistillate spikelets appressed, the uncinate 

 fruits acting like burs. Type species, 

 Pharus latifolius L. Name from Greek 

 pharos, cloth or mantle, possibly alluding 

 to the broad blades. 



1. Pharus parvifolius Nash. (Fig. 

 1150.) Culms long-decumbent and root- 

 ing at base, the flowering shoot 30 to 50 

 cm tall; blades elliptic, abruptly acumi- 

 nate, 10 to 20 cm long, 2 to 4 cm wide ; panicles mostly 10 to 20 cm long, 

 about as wide; pistillate spikelets about 1 cm long, the glumes thin, 

 brown, less than half as long as the lemma; staminate spikelets about 

 3 mm long, the slender pedicels appressed to the pistillate spikelets. Qt 

 — Rocky woods, Florida, rare (Pineola ; Orange Lake) ; West Indies 

 to Brazil. 



TRIBE 11. MELINIDEAE 



118. MELINIS Beauv. 



Spikelets small, dorsally compressed, 1 -flowered with a sterile 

 lemma below the fertile floret, the rachilla disarticulating below the 

 glumes ; first glume minute ; second glume and sterile lemma similar, 

 membranaceous, strongly nerved, slightly exceeding the fertile floret; 



Figure 1147. — Luziola bahiensis 

 (Mohr, Ala.) 



