432 



GRAMINE^E. 



Oryzopsis. 



1. Oryzopsis asperifolia, Michx. Large White-grained Mountain-rice. 



Radical leaves elongated ; sheaths of the culm nearly leafless ; panicle racemose ; awn 

 rather longer than the flower ; styles united below ; mature paleaj whitish. — Michx. I. c. ; 

 Pursh, fl. 1. p. 60 ; Torr. fl. I. p. 71 ; Bigel. fl. Bost. p. 25 ; Nutt. in jour. acad. Phil. 1. 

 p. 125 ; Kunth, enum. 1. p. 176 (in part). Urachne asperifolia, Trin. diss. 1. p. 174, and 

 Pan. gen. I. c. p. 128. U. leucosperma, Link, hort. Berol. 1. p. 94, fide Kth. 



Culm 15-18 inches high, simple, smoothish. Radical leaves nearly as long as the culm, 

 acuminate, glaucous underneath, rough : culm-leaves few (2 - 3), very short ; the upper 

 sheaths almost naked, and a little swelling. Panicle 2-3 inches long, very simple ; the 

 branches short, mostly appressed, 1 - 2-flowered. Glumes nearly equal in length and breadth, 

 acute or acuminate, 7 - 9-nerved, pubescent on the margin. Palese with a short dense tuft 

 of white hairs at the base ; the lower one involute and surrounding the upper, thinly clothed 

 with appressed hairs ; the awn 5-8 lines long, curved, slender : upper palea shorter and 

 narrower. Scales lanceolate-linear, nearly as long as the upper palea. Stamens 3 : anthers 

 linear, elongated. Styles united below : stigmas partly exserted, very long. Scales nearly 

 as long as the inner palea. 



Rocky hillsides, and dry woods. Western and northern counties. 



2. Oryzopsis melanocarpa, MuhL Black-fruited Mountain-rice. 



Culm leafy ; panicle nearly simple, the lower branches more or less diverging ; flowers 

 somewhat racemose on the branches ; glumes ovate-lanceolate ; palese blackish when mature, 

 slightly hairy at the base, acuminate, the awn 3 times as long as the flower. — Muhl. gram, 

 p. 79. O. asperifolia, Kunth, enum. 1. p. 176 (in part). Milium racemosum, Smith in Rees' 

 cyclop. ; Bigel. ji. Bost. p. 25. Piptalherum nigrum, Torr. fl. 1. p. 79 ; Beck, hot. p. 393. 

 Urachne racemosa, Trin. diss. 1. p. 174, and Pan. gen. I. c. p. 127. 



Culm 2-3 feet high, erect, simple. Leaves 8-12 inches long and nearly half an inch 

 wide, dark green, pubescent underneath, smooth above : sheaths with a bearded ring at the 

 throat. Panicles sparingly branched ; the lower branches often in pairs. Spikelets on clavate 

 pedicels. Glumes acuminate ; the lower 7-nerved ; upper one 5-nerved. Paleae blackish 

 when old ; the lower one embracing the upper, with a straight awn at the tip, nearly an inch 

 in length. Stamens 3 : anthers linear, yellow. Styles distinct ; the stigmas simply plumose. 

 Caryopsis oblong, black. 



Rocky woods, in the western and northern parts of the State. Fl. August. It is strange 

 that Kunth should have confounded this with the preceding species, from which it is abun- 

 dantly distinct. 



