Tall grasses with flat leaf-blades and panicled spikelets. Spikelets 1-flowered. Scales 3; the 2 outer empty, keeled, acute; the third scale similar, but usually short-awned on the back, subtending a palet and a stalked perfect flower; palet a little shorter, 1- or 2-nerved. Stamen 1. Styles short, distinct. Stigmas plumose. Grain narrow, free, enclosed in the scale and palet. Seed adherent to the pericarp. [Greek, from Dioscorides.]

Four known species, inhabiting temperate regions of Europe and North America. Besides the following, another occurs in the western United States. Type species: China arundinacca L.

1. Cinna Arundinacea L. Wood Or Sweet Reed-Grass

Fig. 485

Cinna arundinacea L. Sp. PI. 5. 1753.

Culms 2°-5° tall, erect, simple, smooth and glabrous. Sheaths usually shorter than the in-ternodes, overlapping at the base of the culm, smooth or roughish; ligule 1"-2" long, truncate; blades 6'-1° long, 2"-7" wide, scabrous; panicle 6'-12' in length, usually contracted, sometimes purple, the filiform branches erect or drooping, the lower 1 1/2'-4 1/2' long; spikelets 2 1/2"-3" in length, the scales acute, scabrous, especially on the keel, the first one shorter than the second; third scale slightly exceeded or equalled by the second, usually bearing an awn about \" long from the 2-toothed apex.

In moist woods and swamps, Nova Scotia to Ontario, Georgia and Texas. Ascends to 1700 ft. in North Carolina. Indian Reed-grass. Aug.-Sept.

2. Cinna Latifolia (Trev.) Griseb. Slender Wood Or Sweet Reed-Grass

Fig. 486

Agrostis latifolia Treviran, in Goeppert, Beschr. d. Bot.

Gart. Breslau, 82. 1830. Cinna pendula Trin. Mem. Acad. St. Petersb. (VI.) 6:

280. 1841. C. latifolia Griseb. in Ledeb. Fl. Ross. 4: 435. 1853.

Culms 2°-4° tall, erect, usually slender, simple, smooth and glabrous. Sheaths shorter than the in-ternodes, sometimes slightly scabrous; ligule 1"-2" long; blades 4'-10' long, 2"-6" wide, scabrous; panicle 5'-10' in length, open, the capillary branches generally spreading, flexuous and often drooping, the lower 1 1/2'-5' in length; spikelets 1 1/2"-2" long: scales scabrous, the outer acute, strongly hispid on the keel, the first about equalling the second; third scale usually exceeded by the second and bearing a rough awn 1/2"-1" long from the 2-toothed apex.

In damp woods, Newfoundland to British Columbia, New Jersey and Washington and in the Alleghanies to North Carolina, and in the Rocky Mountains to Colorado and Utah. Also in northern Europe. Ascends to 5000 ft. in the Adirondacks. Aug.-Sept.