Illustrated Descriptions of the Grasses 



not bloom until midsummer and later. The plump flowers are 

 borne in very narrow, one-sided spikes which even before bloom- 

 ing seem beaded with ripened seed. 



Walk through a dry field in late July, and where the earlier 

 grasses have matured and faded green spikes of Slender Paspalum 

 are seen just peeping from their enclosing sheaths. The terminal 

 spike is borne on a slender stem which at length rises many inches 

 above the short upper leaf, while later, other spikes on shorter 

 stems usually protrude from the same sheath. The blossoms of 

 this species are slightly smaller than are those of the Field Pas- 

 palum {Pdspalum laeve) which blooms at the same season in moister 

 locations. The two species are distinguished not alone by the 

 more hairy leaves of Slender Paspalum, but also by the fact that 

 the Field Paspalum bears two to five spikes where the other species 

 commonly bears but one. 



Slender Paspalum. Pdspalum setdceum Michx. 

 Perennial. 



Stem 1-2 ft. tall, slender, erect or spreading. Ligule short. Leaves and 

 sheaths hairy, leaves ^'-y' long, i"-3" wide, flat. 



Spike 2'-4' long, i -sided, very slender, usually solitary on a long peduncle, 

 additional solitary spikes on shorter peduncles from the sheaths of 

 upper leaves; spikelets i-flowered, green, about |" long, round on outer 

 surface, flat on inner surface. Scales 3. Stamens 3. 



Dry fields. July to September. 



Massachusetts to Nebraska, south to Florida and Texas. 



THE PANIC-GRASSES 



Panic-grasses are bewildering in their profusion and their 

 variety. No other genus of the grass family offers such a number 

 of species in the Eastern States. Abundant by waysides, in old 

 fields, and on river banks. Panic-grasses are equally common on 

 sandy soils near the coast. Diverse in form, low species, often 

 less than a foot in height, are like miniature bushes; slender ones 

 are lost amid the surrounding taller growth; broad-leaved Panic- 

 grasses, shoulder-high, form dense green thickets by our roadsides; 

 stout species, burned by a hot sun to purple and copper colour, 

 grow in clumps on the beaches, and with long rootstocks bind the 

 wind-blown sands; and a more delicate Panic-grass bearing great 

 flowering-heads of long, hair-like branches is a common tumble- 

 weed in many states. In some species the pyramidal flowering- 



61 



