Illustrated Descriptions of the Grasses 



GREEN FOXTAIL, YELLOW FOXTAIL, BRISTLY FOX- 

 TAIL, AND ITALIAN MILLET 



These are stout 

 grasses, usually oc- 

 curring as weeds in 

 cultivated lands and by 

 waysides, and blooming in 

 heavy cylindrical spikes of 

 seed-like flowers. Both the 

 Green Foxtail {Setdria viridis) 

 and the Yellow Foxtail are very 

 common near gardens, and the 

 smooth stems, red-tinged at the 

 base, and bearing flattened sheaths 

 and many leaves, are so character- 

 istic of the genus that the grasses 

 are easily recognized, even before the 

 blossoming spikes appear. In bloom 

 the two species are distinguished from 

 one another by the colour of the clus- 

 tered bristles which clothe the spikes, as 

 the bristles of Yellow Foxtail are yellow, 

 or even yellowish brown, while the bristles 

 of Green Foxtail are green, as the name 

 implies. 



Bristly Foxtail {Setdria verficillaia) is 

 less common. It is a more slender spe- 

 cies with smaller spikes whose few bristles 

 are downwardly barbed, thus differing 

 from the two preceding species, the tiny 

 barbs of whose bristles point upward. 



Italian Millet iSeidria itdlica) is a 

 grass that has escaped from cultivation 

 and is not unfrequently found in waste 

 places and by roadsides. It is of stout 

 and rapid growth, and the purplish 

 flowering-heads, as they bend with a load 

 of ripened seed, are often six inches or 

 more in length and more than an inch in 



77 



Yellow Foxtail 

 Seiaria glauca 



