1. O. melanocárpa, Muhl. Leaves lanceolate, taper-pointed; sheaths bearded in the throat; panicle simple or sparingly branched; awn thrice the length of the blackish glume (nearly 1´ long).—Rocky woods, N. Eng. to Penn., Minn., Mo., and westward. Aug.—Culm 2–3° high.
[*][*] Styles united below, slender; culms tufted, naked; leaves concave or involute.
2. O. asperifòlia, Michx. (Pl. 8, fig. 1, 2.) Culms (9–18´ high), with sheaths bearing a mere rudimentary blade, overtopped by the long and rigid linear leaf from the base; very simple panicle or raceme few-flowered; awn 2–3 times the length of the rather hairy whitish glume.—Hillsides, etc., in rich woods; common, N. Eng. to Minn., and northward. May.—Leaves without keels, rough-edged, pale beneath, lasting through the winter. Squamulæ lanceolate, almost as long as the palet!
3. O. Canadénsis, Torr. Culms slender (6–15´ high), the lowest sheaths leaf-bearing; leaves involute-thread-shaped; panicle contracted (1–2´ long), the branches usually in pairs; glume pubescent, whitish; awn short and very deciduous, or wanting.—Rocky hills and dry plains, Maine to W. New Eng., the mountains of Penn., Wisc., Minn., and northward; rare. May.—Glumes 1–2´´ long, sometimes purplish.
22. MÍLIUM, Tourn. Millet-Grass. ([Pl. 13.])
Spikelets 1-flowered, diffusely panicled, not jointed with their pedicels, consisting of 2 equal membranaceous convex and awnless persistent glumes, with a coriaceous awnless flowering glume and narrow palet. Stamens 3. Stigmas branched-plumose. Grain not grooved, enclosed in its glume and palet, all deciduous together. (The ancient Latin name of the Millet, which however belongs to a different genus, of uncertain meaning.)
1. M. effùsum, L. Smooth perennial, 3–6° high; leaves broad and flat, thin; panicle spreading (6–9´ long); flower ovoid-oblong.—Cold damp woods and mountain meadows, N. Eng. to Ill., and northward. June. (Eu.)
23. MUHLENBÉRGIA, Schreber. Drop-seed G. ([Pl. 8.])
Spikelets 1-flowered, in contracted or rarely in open panicles. Empty glumes mostly acute or bristle-pointed, persistent, usually thin; the lower rather smaller or minute. Flower very short-stalked or sessile, the glume and palet usually minutely bearded at base, herbaceous, deciduous with the enclosed grain, often equal, the glume 3-nerved, mucronate or awned at the apex. Stamens 3. (Dedicated to the Rev. Dr. Henry Muhlenberg, a distinguished American botanist of the early part of this century.)
§ 1. MUHLENBERGIA proper. Panicles contracted or glomerate, on branching rigid culms from scaly creeping rootstocks; leaves short and narrow.