2. L. oryzoìdes, Swartz. (Rice Cut-grass.) (Pl. 7, fig. 1–3.) Panicle diffusely branched; spikelets flat, rather spreading (2½–3´´ long); stamens 3; glumes strongly bristly-ciliate (whitish).—Very wet places; Mass, to Minn., and southward; common. Aug. (Eu.)
[*][*] Spikelets broadly oval, imbricately covering each other (2½–3´´ long).
3. L. lenticulàris, Michx. (Catch-fly Grass.) Smoothish; panicle simple; glumes very flat, strongly bristly-ciliate (said to close and catch flies); stamens 2; otherwise like the preceding.—Low grounds, Va., Ill., and southward.
10. ZIZÀNIA, Gronov. Water or Indian Rice. ([Pl. 7.])
Flowers monœcious; the staminate and pistillate both in 1-flowered spikelets in the same panicle. Glumes 2, subtended by a small cartilaginous ring, herbaceo-membranaceous, convex, awnless in the sterile, the lower one tipped with a straight awn in the fertile spikelets. Palet none. Stamens 6. Stigmas pencil-form.—Large, often reed-like water-grasses. Spikelets jointed upon the club-shaped pedicels, very deciduous. (Adopted from ζιζάνιον, the ancient name of some wild grain.)
1. Z. aquática, L. (Indian Rice. Water Oats.) (Pl. 7, fig. 1–4.) Annual; culms 3–9° high; leaves flat, 2–3° long, linear-lanceolate; lower branches of the ample pyramidal panicle staminate, spreading; the upper erect, pistillate; lower glume long-awned, rough; styles distinct; grain linear, slender, 6´´ long.—Swampy borders of streams and in shallow water; common, especially northwestward. Aug.
2. Z. miliàcea, Michx. Perennial; panicle diffuse, ample, the staminate and pistillate flowers intermixed; awns short; styles united; grain ovate.—Penn. (?), Ohio, and southward. Aug.—Leaves involute.
11. TRÍPSACUM, L. Gama-Grass. Sesame-Grass. ([Pl. 14.])
Spikelets monœcious, in jointed unilateral spikes, staminate above and fertile below. Staminate spikelets in pairs, sessile at each triangular joint of the narrow rhachis, both alike, 2-flowered, longer than the joints; glumes 4, coriaceous, the lower (outer) one nerved, the second boat-shaped, the upper with the palets very thin and membranaceous, awnless; anthers opening by 2 pores at the apex. Pistillate spikelets 2-flowered (the lower flower neutral), single and deeply imbedded in each oblong joint of the cartilaginous thickened rhachis, occupying a boat-shaped recess which is closed by the polished and cartilaginous ovate outer glume, the inner glume much thinner and pointed, the upper with the palets very thin and scarious, pointless. Styles united; stigmas very long (purple), hispid. Grain ovoid, free.—Culms stout and tall, solid, from very thick creeping rootstocks. Leaves broad and flat. Spikes axillary and terminal, separating spontaneously into joints at maturity. (Name from τρίβω, to rub, perhaps in allusion to the polished fertile spike.)
1. T. dactyloìdes, L. Spikes (4–8´ long) 2–3 together at the summit (when their contiguous sides are more or less flattened), and also solitary from some of the upper sheaths (when the fertile part is cylindrical); in var. monostàchyum, the terminal spike also solitary.—Moist soil, from Conn. to Penn. and Fla., near the coast, and from Ill. southward. Aug.—Culm 4–7° high; leaves like those of Indian Corn. This is one of our largest and most remarkable Grasses; sometimes used for fodder at the South.