410 



WEEDS AND USEFUL PLANTS. 



33. SACCHA'RUM, L. Sugar Cake. 



[Latinized from the Greek, Sacchar ; originally from the Arabic, SouJcar, Sugar.] 



Spikelets in pairs — one of them pedicellate, the other sessile — each 2- 

 flowered, with a tuft of long silky hairs at base ; the lower floret neuter, 

 with a single palea, — the upper one perfect. Glumes 2, nearly equal, 

 awnless. PalecB 3 (counting that of the neutral floret), minute, unequal, 

 awnless, hyaline. Scales 2, obsoletely 2-3-lobed at apex, sometimes 

 connate in a tube. Stamens 1-3. Oi^arj/ sessile, glabrous; styles 1, 

 terminal, elongated ; stigmas plumose, — the hairs simple, denticulate. 

 Grain free? — Gigantic tropical grasses, with large silky panicles. 



1. S. officina'eum, L. Leaves flat; panicle large and expanding; 

 spikelets racemose on the slender branches ; florets triandrous ; glumes 

 obsoletely 1-nerved, or keeled, invested with long silky hairs at base. 



Officinal Saccharum. Sugar Cane. 



Fr. Canne a Sucre. Germ. Aechtes Zucker-rohr. Span. Cana de Azucar. 



Root perennial (a nodose rhizoma). Culm 8-15 or 20 feet high, and 1-2 inches in di- 

 ameter, with numerous nodes, and solid with pith. Leaves linear-lanceolate, largo (some- 

 thing resembling those of Indian Corn). Panicle a foot or more in length, loosely branched, 

 the Isranches numerous, filiform, 4- 6 inches long, remarkably plumose, or pubescent 

 with verticils or tufts of long white silky hairs at the base of the racemose spikelets. 



Cultivated in Louisiana and other States in the extreme South of the Union. Native of 

 Asia. Fl. Fr. 



Ohs. The Sugar Cane is rarely permitted to flower, under cultivation, 

 being propagated by sections of the culm. The value and importance 

 of this noble Grass, in the domestic economy and commerce of the 

 civilized world, are too well known to require comment. Not having 

 the .advantage of an acquaintance with the living plant, and its culture, 

 my descriptive details and remarks are necessarily very imperfect. Some 

 interesting notices may be found in " Rees' Cyclopaedia," Art. Sugar ; 

 and in the " Farmer's Encyclopaedia." 



34. ANDROPO'GON, L. Beard Grass. 



[Greek ; literally Man''s-heard^ — in allusion to the hairy spikets.] 



Spikelets 2-flowered, in pairs on each joint of the slender racliis, spiked 

 or racemose ; one of the spikelets pedicellate and sterile, often a mere 

 rudiment : the other sessile, with the lower floret neutral and of a single 

 paha, the upper one perfect, of two thin hyaline pa/ece, which are shorter 

 than the subcoriaceous glumes, the lower aivned from the tip. Stamens 

 1-3. Grain free. Perennials with rigid culms, smooth nodes, and lateral 

 and terminal, often clustered or digitate spikes ; the rachis hairy or plu- 

 mose-bearded. 



* Spikes solitary at the apex of the culm and branches. 

 1. ^, SCOpa'rillS, ^iic. Culm paniculately branched above, — the 



