REPORT ON GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. 159 
Specimens were received from a number of other persons in quantities 
too small for chemical analysis, but in nearly all cases they were but 
repetitions of those above named. Some of the specimens analyzed are 
of very inferior quality, and not to be recommended for cultivation; but 
a great point is gained in the determination of that fact, and the deserip- 
tien and figures given will enable every farmer to know which to adopt 
and which to reject. 
In addition to the true grasses there is a line of forage plants belong- 
ing to other families which are found to have highly nutritive properties 
and to be well adopted to cultivation for various purposes. These are 
mainly leguminous plants, as the clovers (alfalfa or lucern) pease, and 
vyetches. Some new plants of this class have recently attracted atten- 
tion in the South, and are treated of in this paper. They are Lespedeza 
striata (Japan clover), Richardsonia scabra (Mexican clover), and a species 
of Desmodium, called in Florida beggar-lice. 
The drawings of the grasses were carefully made by Mr. G. Marx, and 
the plates will be of great assistance in enabling farmers and others to 
identify the various kinds or species. 
In the following pages the botanical name of the grass is first given, 
and then the common one or ones. <A glossary of terms is given at the 
end, to which reference can be made when necessary. 
The grasses belonging to the genus Panicum, sometimes called Panic 
grasses, are very ntunerous, and differ very widely in their appearance. 
The general botanical characters of the genus are as follows: 
PANICUM. 
Flowers in spikes, racemes, or panicles. Spikelets 2-flowered, or with 
one perfect and one rudimentary flower; glumes two, herbaceous, the 
lower one usually short or minute, the upper as long as the fertile flower; 
the lower flower either neutral or staminate, of one palet which closely 
resembles the upper glume, and sometimes with a second thin palet; the 
upper flower perfect, closed, coriaceous or cartilaginous, usually flattish 
paralie] with the glumes, awnless, inclosing the free and grooveless grain; 
stamens three; stigmas plumose, usually purple. 
Panicum TEXANUM—Texas Millet. 
Description.—Branches of the panicle rough, the pedicels with seat- 
tered hairs, especially near the flowers; spikelets oblong, somewhat 
pointed, 2 to 24 lines long, sparsely hairy; lower glume half or two-thirds 
the length of the upper, acute, 5-nerved, the lateral nerves uniting with 
the midnerve below the apex; upper glume prominently 5 to 7 nerved, 
pointed; sterile flower with 2 palets, the lower 5 to 7 nerved, much like 
the apper glume, the upper palet thin and transparent, as long as the 
lower; perfect flower ovate or oblong-ovate, acutish, transversely wrinkled 
with fine reticulated striae. 
An annual grass two to four feet high, sparingly branched, at first 
erect, becoming decumbent and widely spreading, very leafy, sheaths 
and leaves finely soft—hairy; margin of the leaves rough; leat blades 6 
. to § inches long and 4 to 1 inch wide, upper leaves reaching to the base 
of the panicle, or nearly so; panicle 6 to $ inches long, strict, the branches 
alternate, erect, simple, 3 to 4 inches long, with somewhat scattered 
sessile spikelets. 
