MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



575 



Figure 1199.— Distribution of 

 Axonopus compressus. 



ong-exserted ; racemes usually 3, a pair at the summit and 1 rarely 

 2 or even 3 below, usually a pair only on axillary peduncles, slender, 

 ascending, 3 to 10 cm long; spikelets about 2 mm long, pale; glume 

 and sterile lemma equaling the fruit or pointed beyond it, sparsely 

 appressed-silky near the margin, 2 or 4 nerved, the nerves close to 

 the margin, the midnerve suppressed. 9[ (Anastrophus compressus 

 Schlecht.; Anastrophus platycaulis Nash.) — Moist sandy or mucky 

 soil, Coastal Plain, North Carolina to Florida, Texas, and Arkansas; 

 tropical America (fig. 1199); introduced in tropical parts of the Old 

 World. 



127. REIMAROCHLOA Hitchc. 



Spikelets strongly dorsally compressed, lanceolate, acuminate, 

 rather distant, subsessile, and alternate in two rows along one side 

 of a narrow, flattened rachis, the back of the fertile lemma turned 

 toward it; both glumes wanting, or the second 

 sometimes present in the terminal spikelet; 

 sterile lemma about equaling the fruit, the 

 sterile palea obsolete; fertile lemma scarcely 

 indurate, faintly nerved, acuminate, the margins 

 inrolled at the base only, the palea free nearly 

 half its length. Spreading or stoloniferous per- 

 ennials, with flat blades and slender racemes, 

 these subdigitate or racemose along a short axis, 

 stiffly spreading or reflexed at maturity. Type species, Reimaria 

 acuta Fliigge (Reimarochloa acuta Hitchc). Named for J.A.H. 

 Reimarus, and Greek chloa, grass. 



1. Reimarochloa oligostachya (Munro) Hitchc. (Fig. 1200.) 

 Glabrous; culms compressed, often long-decumbent and rooting at 

 the lower nodes, the flowering shoots, 20 to 40 cm tall; sheaths loose; 

 blades 2 to. 4 mm wide; racemes 1 to 4, mostly 2 or 3, 5 to 8 cm long; 

 spikelets about 5 mm long. % (Reimaria oligostachya Munro.) — 

 In water or wet soil, Florida; Cuba. In general aspect resembles 

 Paspalum vaginatum Swartz. 



128. PASPALUM L. 



Spikelets planoconvex, usually obtuse, subsessile, solitary or in 

 pairs, in two rows on one side of a narrow or dilated rachis, the back 

 of the fertile lemma toward it; first glume usually wanting; second 

 glume and sterile lemma commonly about equal, the former rarely 

 wanting; fertile lemma usually obtuse, chartaceous-indurate, the 

 margins inrolled. Perennials in the United States (except P. bos- 

 cianum), with one to many spikelike racemes, solitary, paired, or 

 several to many on a common axis. Type species, Paspalum dis- 

 sectum. Name from Greek paspalos, a kind of millet. 



Several species inhabiting meadows and savannas furnish consider- 

 able forage. Paspalum dilatatum is valuable for pasture, especially 

 for dairy cattle in the Southern States, where it has been cultivated 

 under the name water grass and recently Dallis grass. In the 

 Hawaiian Islands, Australia, and some other countries, where it is 

 called paspalum or paspalum grass, it is valuable as a pasture grass. 

 P. pubiflorum var. glabrum is rather abundant in some regions and 

 is considered a good forage grass. Vasey grass, P. urvillei, is used to 



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