614 GRAMINE^E. (GRASS FAMILY.) 



5. M. Willdenovii, Trin. Culms upright (3° high), slender, simple ot 

 sparingly branched; contracted panicle slender, loosely flower td ; glumes slightly 

 unequal, short-pointed, half the length of the lower palet, which bears an awn 3-4 

 times the length of the spikelet. ( Agrostis tenuiriora, Willd.) — Rocky woods : 

 rather common. Aug. 



6. M. diffusa, Schreber. (Drop-seed. Nimble Will.) Culms dif- 

 fusely much branched (8'- 18' high) ; contracted panicles slender, rather loosely 

 many-flowered, terminal and lateral; glumes extremely minute, the lower obsolete, 

 the upper truncate ; awn once or twice longer than the palet. (Dilep^Tum 

 minutiflorum, Michx.) — Dry hills and woods, from S. New England to Michi- 

 gan, Illinois, and southward. Aug., Sept. — Spikelets only 1" long. 



§ 2. TRICHOCHLOA, DC. Panicle very loose and open, the long branches and 

 pedicels capillary : leaves nairow, often convolute-bristle-form. 



7. M. capillaris, Kunth. (Hair-Grass.) Culm simple, upright (2° high) 

 from a fibrous root ; panicle capillary, expanding (6'- 20' long, purple) ; glumes 

 unequal, one third or half the length of the long-awned palets, the lower mostly 

 pointless, the upper more or less bristle-pointed. — Sandy soil, W. New Eng- 

 land to New Jersey, Kentucky, and southward. Sept. — Pedicels l'-2' long, 

 scarcely thicker than the awns, which are about 1 ' long. 



12. BRACHYELYTRUM, Beauv. (PI. 8.) 



Spikelets 1 -flowered, with a conspicuous filiform pedicel of an abortive second 

 flower about half its length, nearly terete, few, in a simple appressed racemed 

 panicle. Glumes unequal, persistent, usually minute, or the lower one almost 

 obsolete. Palets chartaceo-herbaceous, involute, enclosing the linear-oblong 

 grain, somewhat equal, rough with scattered short bristles ; the lower 5-nerved, 

 extended into a long straight awn; the upper 2-pointed; the awn-like sterile 

 pedicel partly lodged in the groove on its back. Stamens 2 : anthers and stig- 

 mas very long. — Perennial, with simple culms (l°-3° high) from creeping 

 rootstocks, downy sheaths, broad and flat lanceolate pointed leaves, and spike- 

 lets j long without the awn. (Name composed of (Spa^us, short, and e'XvTpov, 

 husk, from the minute glumes.) 



1. B. aristatum, Beauv. (Muhlenbergia erecta, Schrtb. Dilep5'rum 

 aristbsum, Michx.) — Rocky woods : common. June. — Var. EngelmAnni, 

 is a Western form, with the upper glume awn-pointed, nearly half the length of 

 the palet. 



13. CALAMAGROSTIS, Adans. Reed Bent-G. (PI. 8.) 



Spikelets 1-flowered, and often with a pedicel or rudiment of a second abor- 

 tive flower (rarely 2-flowered), in an open or spiked panicle. Glumes keeled or 

 boat-shaped, often acute, commonly nearly equal, and exceeding the flower, 

 which bears at the base copious white bristly hairs. Palets thin ; the lower 

 bearing a slender awn on the back or below the tip, or sometimes awnless ; the 

 upper mostly shorter. Stamens 3. Grain free. — Perennials, with running 

 rootstocks, and mostly tall and simple rigid culms. (Name compounded of 

 KaXap.os, a reed, and ay poems, a grass.) 



