Var. mirabilis, Tuckerm. Culm long and mostly weak, often 4 high, much longer than the loose leaves; spikes 4--8, larger, usually all contiguous or occasionally the lowest 1 or 2 separate, spreading, loosely flowered, tawny or frequently greenish; perigynium narrowly ovate, thin, longer than the scale, the points much spreading and very conspicuous. (C. mirabilis, _Dewey_.)--Shady places, throughout; frequent.

Var. brevior, Dewey. (Pl. 6, fig. 6--10.) Culm always stiff, 1--2 high, longer than the stiff long-pointed leaves; spikes 3--8, all distinct, contiguous or more or less separated, large (3--5" broad), globular, the head always short and erect; perigynium orbicular or ovate-orbicular, often cordate at base, mostly very broadly winged. (C.

straminea, and vars. typica, hyalina, and Meadii, last ed.)--Dry soils, throughout; common.

Var. aperta, Boott. Culm slender but strict below the head, 1--2 high, growing in dense tufts; leaves very narrow, usually much shorter than the culm; spikes 4--6, large, heavy, much contracted below, usually all separated, becoming rusty, disposed in a weak or nodding head; perigynium narrowly ovate.--Bogs, throughout; rare westward. Transition to n. 128, from which the ovate perigynia distinguish it.

Var. invsa, W. Boott. Culm very slender, weak above; leaves very narrow with exceedingly long thin points, about the length of the culm; spikes small (3" broad or less), ovate, variously disposed in dense or open heads or sometimes the lowest remote or even subradical, rusty, the lower ones subtended by filiform bracts 2--5' long.--Swales near the sea-board, Maine to Del.; infrequent. Apt to be confounded with n. 128.

Var. alata, Bailey. Culm very stiff, 1--3 high, longer than the stiff leaves; spikes very large, oblong or conical, always pointed, usually all contiguous, green or sometimes becoming tawny; perigynium orbicular or orbicular-obovate, very abruptly contracted into a short beak which is prominent in the spike. (C. alata, _Torr._)--Swales, Ma.s.s. to Ill., and southward; rare and uncharacteristic far inland.

Var. c.u.mulata, Bailey. Culm very stiff, 2--3 high, greatly exceeding the firm leaves; spikes 5--30, all aggregated or densely capitate, green, widely divergent, pointed above, very abruptly contracted or even truncate at base, very densely flowered; perigynium small, broad, very obscurely nerved, the points inconspicuous.--Dry grounds, Penn. to N.

Eng., and northward; rare.

Var. f'nea, Torr. Culm very stiff, longer than the leaves, 1--2 high; spikes 4--8, contiguous or separated, never densely aggregated, prominently contracted both above and below, very densely flowered, green, or often silvery-green. (C. fnea, last ed., excl. vars.; not _Willd._)--Near the sea-coast; frequent.

C. LEp.o.r.nA, L. Distinguished from C. straminea, var. brevior, as follows:--Usually lower; spikes rusty-brown, ovoid or oblong, erect or appressed, more or less contracted both above and below, contiguous in an interrupted head 1' long or less; perigynium lance-ovate, thin, very narrowly margined, erect and appressed, obscurely nerved.--About Boston (_W. Boott, Morong_). (Adv. from Eu.)

[*] 12.--[+] 3. _Cyperoideae_.

133. C. sychnocephala, Carey. Erect, 3--18' high, leafy; head --1'

long; perigynium very slender, faintly nerved, 5--6 times longer than the exceedingly small achene, mostly a little longer than the sharp scale.--Glades, central N. Y. to Minn., and far westward; rare.

ORDER 129. GRAMiNEae. (GRa.s.s FAMILY.)

_Gra.s.ses, with usually hollow stems_ (culms) _closed at the joints, alternate 2-ranked leaves, their sheaths split or open on the side opposite the blade; the hypogynous flowers solitary in the axils of imbricated 2-ranked glumes_, forming a 1--many-flowered _spikelet_; the lower glumes (1 or usually 2) empty, the succeeding _flowering glumes_ enclosing each a somewhat smaller and usually thinner scale (called the _palet_) and 2 or 3 very minute hyaline scales (_lodicules_) at the base of the flower. Stamens 1--6, commonly 3; anthers versatile, 2-celled, the cells distinct. Styles mostly 2 or 2-parted; stigmas hairy or feathery. Ovary 1-celled, 1-ovuled, forming a seed-like grain (_caryopsis_) in fruit. Embryo small, on the outside and at the base of the floury alb.u.men.--Roots fibrous. Sheath of the leaves usually more or less extended above the base of the blade into a scarious appendage (_ligule_). Spikelets panicled or spiked. Palet usually 2-nerved or 2-keeled, enclosed or partly covered by the glume. Grain sometimes free from, sometimes permanently adherent to, the palet.--A vast and most important family, as it furnishes the cereal grains, and the princ.i.p.al food of cattle, etc. The terms _flowering glume_ and _palet_ are now adopted in place of the _outer_ and _inner palets_ of previous editions, while for convenience the term flower is often retained for the flower proper together with the enclosing flowering glume. (See Plates 7--15.)

SERIES A. Spikelets jointed upon the pedicel below the glumes, of one terminal perfect flower (sometimes a lower staminate or neutral flower in n. 5), or some or all of the 1-flowered spikelets unis.e.xual in n. 10--12. Glumes 4 (rarely only 2 or 3).

Tribe I. PANICEae. Spikelets of one perfect flower, in spikes or panicles. Flowering glume awnless, in fruit more rigid than the empty glumes.

[*] Spikelets in 2--4 ranks on a more or less flattened rhachis.--See also n. 5 (-- Digitaria).

[+] Rhachis produced beyond the upper spikelet; glumes 3.

1. Spartina. Spikelets much flattened laterally in 2 close ranks.

[+][+] Rhachis not produced above the upper spikelet (rarely in n. 3).

2. Beckmannia. Spikelets obovate, in 2 close rows. Glumes 3 (or 4), strongly concave, carinate.

3. Paspalum. Spikelets plano-convex, sessile or nearly so. Glumes 3 (rarely 2).

4. Eriochloa. Spikelets plano-convex, lanceolate, with a basal callus, short-pedicelled.

[*][*] Spikelets irregularly paniculate or spicate.

5. Panic.u.m. Spikelets ovate, not involucrate nor the pedicels bristly.

Glumes 4, the lowest usually small or minute.

6. Setaria. Spikelets in dense cylindrical spikes or panicles, the pedicels bristle-bearing.

7. Cenchrus. Spikelets (1--5) enclosed in a globular spiny bur-like involucre.

8. Amphicarpum. Spikelets of 2 kinds, one in a terminal panicle, the other subterranean on radical peduncles.

Tribe II. ORYZEae. Spikelets unis.e.xual or perfect, in loose panicles, with only 2 glumes (in our genera) and palet none. Stamens often 6.

9. Leersia. Flowers perfect. Spikelets much flattened. Glumes carinate.

10. Zizania. Spikelets unis.e.xual. Glumes convex, narrow.

Tribe III. MAYDEae. Spikelets of a single perfect or unis.e.xual or rudimentary flower, in jointed spikes, in pairs at each joint, mostly imbedded in the thick rhachis.

11. Tripsac.u.m. Spikelets moncious, the staminate above in the spike.

12. Rottbllia. One spikelet of each pair sterile and shortly pedicelled, the other fertile, sessile and sunk in the rhachis.

Tribe IV. ANDROPOGONEae. Spikelets in pairs or threes on the (usually jointed and bearded) rhachis of a spike or branches of a panicle, one sessile and fertile, the lateral pedicelled and often sterile or rudimentary; 2 upper glumes smaller and hyaline, that of the fertile flower mostly awned.

13. Erianthus. Spikelets in pairs, spicate, all alike fertile, involucrate with a silky tuft.

14. Andropogon. Spikelets spicate, in pairs, the pedicellate sterile or rudimentary; rhachis bearded.

15. Chrysopogon. Spikelets in open panicles, in pairs or threes, only the sessile fertile.

SERIES B. Rhachis of the spikelet usually jointed above the persistent lower glumes (jointed below the glumes only in n. 19, 31, and 36).

Spikelets 1--many-flowered, the uppermost flowers often imperfect or rudimentary.

Tribe V. PHALARIDEae. Glumes 5, only the uppermost fertile, the 2 middle ones rudimentary or empty or staminate; palet 1-nerved. Panicle mostly contracted and spike-like.

16. Phalaris. Middle glumes mere rudiments each side of the shining triandrous flower.

17. Anthoxanthum. Middle glumes empty, awned on the back. Stamens 2.

18. Hierochloe. Middle glumes triandrous. Fertile flower diandrous.

Tribe VI. AGROSTIDEae. Glumes 3; flower solitary, perfect (rarely a rudimentary or perfect second flower in n. 23 and 32--34), palet 2-nerved.

[*] Flowering glume with a terminal awn (none in n. 22), closely embracing the grain in fruit; spikelets in panicles or loose spikes, the rhachis not produced beyond the flower (except in n. 24 and a single species of n. 23).--STIPEae.

[+] Fruiting glume firm and indurated, with a callus at base (none in n. 22).

19. Aristida. Awn 3-fid, the branches divaricate. Callus acute.

20. Stipa. Awn simple, twisted. Callus mostly acute.

21. Oryzopsis. Awn simple, straight, deciduous. Flower oblong; callus short, obtuse.