Spikelets 1-flowered, in a contracted, mostly spike-like panicle. Empty glumes nearly equal, long-awned, much longer than the membranaceous flowering one which is commonly short-awned below the apex. Stamens 3. Grain free. (Name composed of πολύ, much, and πωγών, beard.)
P. Monspeliénsis, Desf. Panicle interrupted; lower glumes oblong, the awn from a notch at the summit, the flowering one also awned; root annual.—Isles of Shoals (Robbins), ballast heaps, and southward. (Nat. from Eu.)
31. CÍNNA, L. Wood Reed-Grass. ([Pl. 8.])
Spikelets 1-flowered, much flattened, crowded in an open flaccid panicle. Empty glumes persistent, lanceolate, acute, strongly keeled, rough-serrulate on the keel; the lower rather smaller, the upper a little exceeding the flower, which is manifestly stalked, smooth and naked; flowering glume much like the lower, longer than the palet, usually short awned or mucronate on the back below the pointless apex. Stamen one, opposite the 1-nerved palet! Grain linear-oblong, free.—A perennial, rather sweet-scented grass, with simple and upright somewhat reed-like culms (2–7° high), bearing an ample compound terminal panicle, its branches in fours or fives; the broadly linear-lanceolate flat leaves (4–6´´ wide) with conspicuous ligules. Spikelets green, often purplish-tinged. (From κίννα, a name in Dioscorides for a kind of grass.)
1. C. arundinàcea, L. (Pl. 8, fig. 1, 2.) Panicle 6–15´ long, rather dense, the branches and pedicels spreading in flower, afterward erect; spikelets 2½–3´´ long.; awn of the glume either obsolete or manifest.—Moist woods and shaded swamps; rather common. July, Aug.
2. C. péndula, Trin. Panicle loose and more slender, the branches nearly capillary and drooping in flower; pedicels very rough; glumes thinner, the lower less unequal; spikelets 1½–2´´ long; palet obtuse. (C. arundinacea, var. pendula, Gray.)—Deep damp woods, N. New Eng. to Lake Superior and northward, and on mountains southward. (Eu.)
32. APÈRA, Adans.
With the characters of Agrostis; distinguished by the presence of a second rudimentary flower in the form of a short bristle, and by the 2-toothed palet little shorter than the flowering bifid glume, which is dorsally awned.—A rather late annual, with narrow flat leaves, and a contracted or spreading panicle with numerous filiform branches and very numerous small shining spikelets. (Name from ἄπηρος, unmaimed; application obscure.)
A. spìca-vénti, Beauv. Spikelets ½–1´´ long.—Sparingly naturalized. (Nat. from Eu.)
33. CALAMAGRÓSTIS, Adans. Reed Bent-G. ([Pl. 8.])