184 MISC. PUBLICATION 200, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



Figure 363.— Distribution of 

 Uniola sessiliflora. 



6. Uniola laxa (L.) B.S.P. (Fig. 364.) Culms slender, 60 to 100 

 cm tall, erect to nodding from a loosely tufted sometimes knotty base; 

 blades elongate, flat to sometimes loosely involute, 3 to 6 mm wide; 

 panicle narrow, slender, 15 to 30 cm long, the branches short, appressed, 



approximate, the lower sometimes 3 cm long 

 and distant; spikelets nearly sessile, approxi- 

 mate, flat, usually 3- to 4-flowered, the first 

 lemma empty; lemmas spreading, 4 to 5 mm 

 long, gradually acuminate, striate-nerved ; 

 palea broad, the keels narrowly winged; grain 

 black, 2.5 mm long, at maturity spreading 

 the. lemma and palea. 01 — Moist woods, 

 Coastal Plain, Long Island to Florida and 

 Texas, extending to western North Carolina, Kentucky, and Arkan- 

 sas (fig. 365). 



21. DACTYLIS L. Orchard grass 



Spikelets few-flowered, compressed, finally disarticulating between 



the florets, nearly sessile in dense 1 -sided fascicles, these borne 



at the ends of the few branches of a panicle; glumes unequal, carinate, 



acute, hispid-ciliate on the keel; lemmas compressed-keeled, mucro- 



nate, 5-nerved, ciliate on the keel. Perennials, with 



flat blades and fascicled spikelets. Type species, 



Dactylis glomerata. Name from Greek dactv.los, a finger, 



alluding to the stiff branches of the panicle. 



1. Dactylis glomerata L. Orchard grass. (Fig. 

 366.) Culms in large tussocks, 

 60 to 120 cm tall; blades elongate, 

 2 to 8 mm wide; panicles 5 to 20 

 cm long, the few distant stiff soli- 

 tary branches ascending, or 

 spreading at anthesis, appressed 

 at maturity, the lowermost some- 

 times as much as 10 cm long; 

 lemmas about 8 mm long, mucro- 



nate or short-awned. Oi — Fields, meadows, and waste 

 places, Newfoundland to southeastern Alaska, south to 

 Florida and central California; Eurasia. Commonly 

 cultivated as a meadow and pasture grass. In Eng- 

 land called cocksfoot. A variegated form (called by 

 gardeners var. variegata) is occasionally cultivated for 

 borders. 



22. CYNOSTJRUS L. Dogtail 



Figure 365.— Distribution of 

 Uniola laxa. 



Figure 364.— Un- 

 iola laxa. Plant, 

 X 1; floret, X 5. 

 (Van Eseltino 

 and Moseley 

 178, D.C.) 



Spikelets of two kinds, sterile and fertile together, 

 the fertile sessile, nearly covered by the short-pediceled 

 sterile one, these pairs imbricate in a dense 1-sided 

 spikelike panicle; sterile spikelets consisting of 2 glumes and several 

 narrow, acuminate, 1-nerved lemmas on a continuous rachilla; fertile 

 spikelets 2- or 3-flowered, the glumes narrow, the lemmas broader, 

 rounded on the back, awn-tipped, the rachilla disarticulating above 



