Tall erect perennial grasses, with usually flat leaf-blades, and terminal ample commonly hairy panicles. Spikelets 1-flowered, unequally pedicellate, arranged in pairs along the continuous branches of the panicle, articulated with the pedicel. Scales 4; outer 2 larger, empty, membranous, muticous; third scale also empty but thinner; fourth scale thinly hyaline, subtending a perfect flower, 2-toothed at the apex, the awn arising from between the teeth, usually slender, often with a twisted column at the base and geniculate, sometimes straight, rarely very short or wanting; palet thin, hyaline. Stamens 3. Styles distinct. Stigmas plumose. [Greek, in allusion to the stalked spikelets.]

A genus of about 10 species, natives of the Old World. Type species: Eulalia japonica Trin.

1. Miscanthus Sinensis Anderss. Japanese Plume-Grass

Fig. 257

Saccharum polydactylon β Thunb. Fl. Jap. 43. 1784. Saccharum japonicum Thunb. Trans. Linn. Soc. a:

328, in part. 1794. Erianthus japonicus Beauv.; R. & S. Syst. 2: 324.

1817. Ripidium japonicum Trin. Fund. Agrost. 169. 1820. Eulalia japonica Trin. Mem. Acad. St. Petersb. VI.

2: 333. 1832. Miscanthus sinensis Anderss. Oefv. Sv. Vet.-Akad.

Forh. 1855: 166. 1856.

Stems 3°-6° tall; leaf-blades up to 30 long and 8" wide; panicle 8'-16' long, its branches erect or ascending; spikelets 2 1/4"-2 1/2" long, yellowish brown, shining, glabrous, encircled at the base with white or purplish hairs equaling or exceeding them, the awn 4"-5" long, spirally twisted at the base.

Escaped from cultivation at Washington, D. C, and on Long Island; also in Florida. A native of China, Japan and the Celebes.