§ 2. DÍGRAPHIS. Panicle branched, the clusters open in anthesis; glumes not winged on the back.
1. P. arundinàcea, L. (Reed C.) ([Pl. 13], fig. 1, 2.) Perennial, 2–4° high; leaves flat (3–5´´ wide); glumes open at flowering, 3-nerved, thrice the length of the fertile flower; rudimentary glumes reduced to a minute hairy scale or pedicel.—Wet grounds; common, especially northward. June, July.—Var. pícta, the leaves striped with white, is the familiar Ribbon-Grass of the gardens. (Eu.)
17. ANTHOXÁNTHUM, L. Sweet Vernal-Grass. ([Pl. 13.])
Spikelets spiked-panicled, 1-flowered. Glumes 5, the third and fourth empty, hairy, 2-lobed and awned on the hack, the flowering glume and palet small, hyaline and obtuse; basal glumes persistent, very thin, acute, keeled, the lower half as long as the upper. Squamulæ none. Stamens 2. Grain ovate, adherent. (Name compounded of ἄνθος, flower, and ἄνθων, of flowers. L.)
A. odoràtum, L. Spikelets (brownish or tinged with green) spreading at flowering-time; one middle glume bearing a bent awn from near its base, the other short-awned below the tip.—Meadows, pastures, etc. Low slender perennial; very sweet-scented in drying. May–July. (Nat. from Eu.)
18. HIERÓCHLOE, Gmelin. Holy Grass. ([Pl. 13.])
Spikelets 3-flowered, open-panicled, the two lower (lateral) flowers staminate only, 3-androus, sessile, the carinate glumes often awned on the middle of the back or near the tip, the uppermost flower perfect, short-pedicelled, scarcely as long as the others, 2-androus, awnless. Basal glumes persistent, carinate, acute, somewhat 3-nerved, equalling or exceeding the spikelet.—Perennials; leaves flat. (Name composed of ἱερός, sacred, and χλόη, grass; these sweet-scented grasses being strewn before the church-doors on saints' days, in the North of Europe.)
1. H. boreàlis, Roem. & Schultes. (Vanilla or Seneca Grass.) (Pl. 13, fig. 1, 2.) Panicle somewhat one-sided, pyramidal (2–5´ long); peduncles smooth; staminate flowers with the glume mucronate or bristle-pointed at or near the tip; rootstock creeping.—Moist meadows, chiefly northward near the coast and along the Great Lakes. May.—Culm 1–2° high, with short, lanceolate leaves. Spikelets chestnut-color; the staminate flowers strongly hairy-fringed on the margins, and the fertile one at the tip. (Eu.)
2. H. alpìna, Roem. & Schultes. Panicle contracted (1–2´ long); one of the staminate flowers with its glume barely pointed or short-awned near the tip, the other long-awned from below the middle; lowest leaves very narrow.—Alpine mountain-tops, N. Eng., N. Y., and northward. July. (Eu.)
19. ARÍSTIDA, L. Triple-awned Grass. ([Pl. 8.])