MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



479 



93. ELEUSINE Gaertn. 



Spikelets few to several-flowered, compressed, sessile and closely 

 imbricate, in two rows along one side of a rather broad rachis, not 

 prolonged beyond the spikelets; rachilla disarticulating above the 

 glumes and between the florets; glumes unequal, rather broad, acute, 

 1-nerved, shorter than the first lemma; lemmas acute, with 3 strong 



Figure 1026.— Tnpogon spicatas. Plant, X l A; spikelet and floret, X 5. (Nealley 78, Tex.) 



green nerves close together forming a keel, the uppermost somewhat 

 reduced; seed dark brown, roughened by fine ridges, loosely enclosed 

 in the thin pericarp. Annuals, with two to several rather stout 

 spikes, digitate at the summit of the culms, sometimes with one or 

 two a short distance below, or rarely with a single spike. Type spe- 

 cies, Eleusine coracana. Name from Eleusis, the town where De- 

 meter was worshipped. 



55974°— 35 31 



