Part 204 (1/2)

C. DaCTYLON, Pers. Spikes 3--5; flowering glume smooth, longer than the blunt rudiment.--Penn., and southward, where it is cultivated for pasturage. (Nat. from Eu.)

43. CTeNIUM, Panzer. TOOTHACHE-GRa.s.s. (Pl. 9.)

Spikelets densely imbricated in two rows on one side of the flat curved rhachis of the solitary terminal spike. Glumes persistent; the lower (interior) much smaller; the other concave below, bearing a stout recurved awn, like a horn, on the middle of the back. Flowers 4--6, all but one neutral; the one or two lower consisting of empty awned glumes, and the one or two uppermost of empty awnless glumes; the perfect flower intermediate, its glume membranaceous, awned or mucronate below the apex and densely ciliate toward the base, 3-nerved. Stamens 3. Stigmas plumose. (Name ?te????, _a small comb_, from the pectinate appearance of the spike.)

1. C. Americanum, Spreng. Culm (3--4 high from a perennial root) simple, p.u.b.escent or roughish; larger glume warty-glandular outside, conspicuously awned.--Wet pine-barrens, S. Va. and southward.--Taste very pungent.

44. GYMNOPGON, Beauv. (Pl. 9.)

Spikelets of one perfect flower, and the rudiment of a second (consisting of an awn-like pedicel mostly bearing a naked bristle), sessile and remotely alternate on long filiform rays or spikes, which form a crowded naked raceme. Glumes lance-awl-shaped, keeled, almost equal, rather longer than the membranaceous flowering glume, which is cylindrical-involute, with the midrib produced from just below the 2-cleft apex into a straight and slender bristle-like awn; palet nearly as long, with the abortive rudiment at its base. Stamens 3. Stigmas pencil-form, purple.--Root perennial. Leaves short and flat, thickish, 1--3' long. (Name composed of ?????, _naked_, and p????, a _beard_, alluding to the reduction of the abortive flower to a bare awn.)

1. G. racemsus, Beauv. (Pl. 9, fig. 1, 2.) Culms cl.u.s.tered from a short rootstock (1 high), wiry, leafy; leaves oblong-lanceolate; _spikes flower-bearing to the base_ (5--8' long), soon divergent; awn of the abortive flower shorter than its stalk, equalling the _pointed glumes_, not more than half the length of the awn of the fertile flower.--Sandy pine-barrens, N. J. to Va., and southward. Aug., Sept.

2. G. breviflius, Trin. Filiform _spikes long-peduncled, i.e.

flower-bearing_ only above the middle; flowering glume ciliate near the base, short-awned; _awn of the abortive flower obsolete or minute; glumes acute_.--Suss.e.x Co., Del., and southward.

45. SCHEDONNaRDUS, Steud. (Pl. 11.)

Spikelets small, ac.u.minate, 1-flowered, appressed-sessile and scattered along one side of the slender rhachis of the distant sessile and divaricately spreading spikes. Empty glumes persistent, narrow, ac.u.minate, more or less unequal, the longer usually a little shorter than the rather rigid ac.u.minate flowering one. Stamens 3. Styles distinct. Grain linear.--A low slender annual, branching from the base, with short narrow leaves. (Name from s?ed??, _near_, and _Nardus_, from its resemblance to that genus.)

1. S. Texa.n.u.s, Steud. Stem (6--20' long) naked and curved above, bearing 3--9 racemosely disposed thread-like and triangular spikes 1--3' long; spikelets 1” long. (Lepturus paniculatus, _Nutt._)--Open grounds and salt-licks, Ill. to Mont., Col., and Tex. Aug.

46. BOUTELOuA, Lagasca. MUSKiT-GRa.s.s. (Pl. 9.)

Spikelets crowded and closely sessile in 2 rows on one side of a flattened rhachis, comprising one perfect flower below and one or more sterile (mostly neutral) or rudimentary flowers. Glumes convex-keeled, the lower one shorter. Perfect flower with the 3-nerved glume 3-toothed or cleft at the apex, the 2-nerved palet 2-toothed; the teeth, at least of the former, pointed or subulate-awned. Stamens 3; anthers orange-colored or red.--Rudimentary flowers mostly 1--3-awned. Spikes solitary, racemed or spiked; the rhachis somewhat extended beyond the spikelets. (Named for _Claudius Boutelou_, a Spanish writer upon floriculture and agriculture.)

-- 1. CHONDRSIUM. _Spikes pectinate, of very many spikelets, oblong or linear, very dense, solitary and terminal or few in a raceme; sterile flowers 1--3 on a short pedicel, neutral, consisting of 1--3 scales and awns._

1. B. oligostachya, Torr. Glabrous, perennial (6--12' high); _leaves very narrow_; spikes 1--5, the rhachis glabrous; _glumes all sparingly soft-hairy_, the lobes awl-pointed; _sterile flower copiously villous-tufted_ at the summit of the naked pedicel, its 3 awns equalling the larger glume.--N. W. Wisc. to Dak., and south to Tex. and Mex.--Glumes obscurely if at all papillose along the keel, the middle lobe of the flowering one 2-cleft at the tip. Sterile flowers often 2, the second mostly a large awnless scale, becoming hood-like and coriaceous.

2. _B. hirsuta_, Lag. Tufted (8--20' high), perennial; _leaves flat, lance-linear_, papillose-hairy or glabrous; spikes 1--4; _upper empty glume hispid_ with strong bristles _from dark warty glands; flowering glume p.u.b.escent_, 3-cleft into awl-pointed lobes; _sterile flower and its pedicel glabrous, the 3 awns longer than the glumes_ and fertile flower.--Sandy plains, Ill., Wisc., Minn., and southwestward to Mex.

-- 2. ATHEROPGON. _Spikes short, numerous in a long and virgate one-sided spike or raceme, spreading or reflexed, each of few (4--12) spikelets; sterile flowers neutral, rudimentary._

3. B. racemsa, Lag. (Pl. 9, fig. 1, 2.) Culms tufted from perennial rootstocks (1--3 high); sheaths often hairy; leaves narrow; spikes '

or less in length, nearly sessile, 20--60 in number in a loose general spike (8--15' long); flowers scabrous; glume of the fertile with 3 short awl pointed teeth; sterile flower reduced to a single small awn, or mostly to 3 awns shorter than the fertile flower, and 1 or 2 small or minute scales. (B. curtipendula, _Gray_.)--Dry hills and plains, southern N. Y. to Minn., and south to Tex. and Mex. July--Sept.--Pa.s.ses by transitions into var. ARISTSA, with spikes shorter; sterile flower of a large saccate glume, awned at the 2-cleft tip and from the lateral nerves, the middle awn exserted, and with a rudiment of a palet.--Ill.

(_Geyer_), and southward.

47. ELEUSNE, Gaertn. CRAB-GRa.s.s. YARD-GRa.s.s. (Pl. 9.)

Spikelets 2--6-flowered, with a terminal imperfect flower or naked rudiment, closely imbricate-spiked on one side of a flattish rhachis; the spikes digitate. Glumes membranaceous, shorter than the flowers; flowering glume and palet awnless, the glume ovate, keeled, larger than the palet. Stamens 3. Pericarp (utricle) containing a loose wrinkled seed.--Low annuals, with flat leaves, and flowers much as in Poa. (Name from ??e?s??, the town where Ceres, the G.o.ddess of harvests, was wors.h.i.+pped.)

E. iNDICA, Gaertn. (DOG'S-TAIL or WIRE GRa.s.s.) (Pl. 9, fig. 1--6.) Culms ascending, flattened; spikes 2--5 (about 2' long, greenish); glumes pointless; terminal flower a mere rudiment.--Yards, etc., chiefly southward. (Nat. from Ind.?)

E. aeGYPTACA, Pers. (Pl. 9, fig. 1--4, as Dactyloctenium.) Culms often creeping at base; leaves ciliate at base; spikes 4--5; lower glume awned and the flowering one pointed. (Dactyloctenium aegyptiac.u.m, _Willd._)--Cultivated fields and yards, Va., Ill., and southward. (Adv.