panicles 1-2 dm. long, 3-6 cm. wide; racemes 40 to 90, crowded, ascending, 2-5 

 cm. long, 2-3 mm. thick; spikelets laterally compressed, closely overlapping, 5- to 

 7-flowered, 3.5-4.5 mm. long; glumes and lemma acute, about 2 mm. long, 

 mucronate, pubescent laterally on the lower part. 



Mud, e. and s.e. Tex., rare, spring-fall; nat. of Braz.; Mo. to Miss., Ark. and 

 Tex.; adv. in India. 



4. Leptochloa Nealleyi Vasey. 



Tufted annual; culms 5-15 dm. long, 1.5-6 mm. thick, erect, unbranched, 

 leafy; ligule a somewhat lacerate scale 1-3 mm. long; blades 1-4 dm. long, 2-7 

 mm. broad, flat or basally folded or drying involute; sheaths sharply keeled; pani- 

 cles 2-5 dm. long, 1-3 cm. broad; racemes 25 to 85, overlapping, 1-10 cm. 

 long, about 2 mm. thick, stiffly ascending or appressed; spikelets laterally com- 

 pressed, closely overlapping, 3- or 4-flowered, 2-3 mm. long; glumes and lemmas 

 about 1 mm. long, the former acute, the latter blunt and awnless with slightly 

 pubescent nerves. 



Mud, near the coast, in marshes and in mud and water of sloughs, s.e. Tex. 

 and Rio Grande Plains, scattered, spring-fall; coastal areas, Tam. to La. 



5. Leptochloa filifomiis (Lam.) Beauv. Red sprangletop. Fig. 121. 



Tufted annual; culms 2-9 dm. long, 1-3 mm. thick, geniculate and occasionally 

 rooting at lower nodes, sparingly branched, ascending, leafy, soft; ligule a hyaline 

 somewhat lacerate scale about 1 mm. long; blades 2-20 cm. long, 1.5-10 mm. 

 broad, flat; sheaths papillose-pilose; panicles 7-35 cm. long, 2-21 cm. broad; 

 racemes 7 to 70, remote, 1—15 cm. long, 1-2 mm. thick, diverging from axis 

 at angles of 40°-90°; spikelets not much-compressed laterally, 1.4-2.6 mm. long, 

 3- or 4-flowered, barely overlapping; glumes lanceolate, the second one sur- 

 passing the lowest lemma; lemma blunt, 1-1.5 mm. long, awnless, pubescent on 

 the nerves. 



Moist soil and mud, along streams, on flats, and alluvial banks, in Okla. 

 (Waterfall) and in e., s.e. and n.-cen. Tex., Rio Grande Plains and rarely w. 

 to e. Plains Country, scattered, in N. M. (Dona Ana and Sierra cos.) and Ariz. 

 (Apache, Navajo and Coconino, s. to Cochise, Santa Cruz, Pima and Yuma cos.), 

 late spring-fall; widely distributed in the warmer parts of the New World n. to 

 Va., Ind., 111., Mo., Kan., N.M., Ariz, and Calif. 



36. Cynodon Rich. 



A genus of perhaps 10 species of the warmer parts of the Old World; one 

 species now nearly ubiquitous in warmer parts of the whole world. 



1. Cynodon Dactylon (L.) Pers. Bermuda grass, pata de gallo. Fig. 122. 



Rhizomatous and stoloniferous perennial; aerial culms 1-4 (10) dm. long, 1-2 

 mm. thick, the lower portions stoloniferous and much-branched, distal portions 

 ascending; ligule a double fringe of cilia, a shorter denser fringe about 0.5 mm. 

 long and sparser hairs 1-2 mm. long; blades 1-8 (-13) cm. long, 1-4 mm. 

 broad, mostly flat or folded, ascending; sheaths pilose at the corners; panicles 

 flabellate, of digitate spikes; spikes 3 to 7 (usually 4 or 5) per panicle, 1-6 cm. 

 long, about 1 mm. thick, ascending; spikelets sessile, very crowded, 1 -flowered, 

 1-5-2 (-2.5) mm. long, strongly compressed, arranged in 2 rows along and ap- 

 pressed to one side of the very narrow rachis; glumes 1-1.5 mm. long, narrow, 

 acute, persistent, the single nerve forming a keel; zone of abscission below the 

 lemma; lemma 1.5-2 mm. long, awnless, slightly cartilaginous, pubescent on the 

 dorsal keel, with lateral nerves very near the margin. C. inaritimm H.B.K. 



Loamy, usually alluvial, seasonally moist, sometimes alkaline or subsaline, 

 soils, capable of surviving periodic submersion about hot springs, nearly through- 

 out Tex. to Ariz. (Graham Co.), most abundant in the coastal areas of s.e. Tex. 



256 



