626 GRAMINE^E. (GRASS FAMILY.) 



der grasses, with simple and tufted culms, and often sparsely downy sheaths, 

 flat lower leaves, and small greenish (or rarely purplish-tinged) spikelets. 

 (Named for Prof. Amos Eaton, author of a popular Manual of the Botany of the 

 United States, which was for a long time the only general work available for 

 students in this country, and of other popular treatises.) 



1. E. ObtUSata, Gray. Panicle dense and contracted, somewhat interrupted, 

 rarely slender; the spikelets crowded on the short erect branches; upper glume 

 rounded-obuvate, truncate-obtuse, rough on the back ; flowers lance-oblong. (Aira 

 obtusata, Miilix. A. truncata, Muhl. Kceleria truncata, Torr. K. panicuiata, 

 Nult. Reboulea gracilis, Kunth, in part. R. obtusata, Ed. 1. Eatonia purpu- 

 rascens, Ruf.?) — Dry soil, N. Pennsylvania to Wisconsin, and southward. 

 June, July. 



2. E. Pennsylvania, Gray. Panicle long and slender, loose, the racemose 

 branches somewhat elongated ; upper glume obtuse or bluntly somewhat pointed ; 

 the 2 (rarely 3) flowers lanceolate. ( Kceleria Pennsylvania, DC, Aira mollis, 

 Muhl. Reboulea Pennsylvania, Ed. 1.) — Varies, with a fuller panicle, 6'- 8' 

 long, with the aspect of Cinna (var. major, Torr.) ; and, rarely, with the lower 

 palet minutely mucronate-pointed ! — Moist woods and meadows : common. 



31. ME LI C A, L. Melic-Grasc. (PI. 10.) 



Spikelets 2 - 5-flowered ; the 1 - 3 upper flowers imperfect and dissimilar, con- 

 volute around each other, and enwrapped by the upper fertile flower. Glumes 

 usually large, scarious-inargined, convex, obtuse ; the upper 7 - 9-nerved. Palets 

 papery-membranaceous, dry and sometimes indurating with age ; the lower 

 rounded or flattish on the back, 7 - many-nerved, scarious at the entire blunt 

 summit. Stamens 3. Stigmas branched-plumose. — Perennials with soft and 

 flat leaves. Panicle simple or sparingly branched ; the rather large spikelets 

 racemose-one sided. (An old name, from fiiXi, honey.) 



1. M. mdtica, Walt. Panicle simple or branched ; glumes unequal, the 

 larger almost equalling the spikelet ; fertile flowers 2 ; lower palet naked, 

 glabrous minutely scabrous on the nerves. (M. glabra, Michx. M. specibsa, 

 Muhi.) — Var. glabra (M. glabra, Pursh) has the panicle often few-flowered 

 and rather simple, the lower palet very blunt. — Var. diffusa (M. diffusa, 

 Pursh) is taller, 2^° -4° high, with a more compound and many-flowered pani- 

 cle ; the lower palet commonly more scabrous and its tip narrower. — Rich soil, 

 S. E. Pennsylvania to Wisconsin, and southward. June. 



32. GLYCERIA, R. Br., Trin. Manna-Grass. (PI. 10.) 



Spikelets terete or flattish, several -many-flowered ; the flowers mostly earlv 

 deciduous by the breaking up of the rhachis into joints, leaving the short and 

 unequal 1 -3-nerved membranaceous glumes behind. Palets naked, of a rather 

 firm texture, nearly equal ; the lower rounded on the back, scarious (and some- 

 times obscurely toothed) at the blunt or rarely acute summit, glabrous. 5-7- 

 nerved, the nerves parallel and separate. Stamens 3, or in the first section 

 commonly 2. Stigmas plumose, mostly compound. Ovary smooth. Grain 

 oblong, free, — Perennial, smooth marsh-grasses, mostly with creeping bases or 



