No. 5. 



SETARIA CAUDATA R. & S. 



J'laiit ainmal. 



Rootstock none. Roots slender. 



Culms 5i to 2^ feet high, branching from the base, scabrous or iieai-ly glabrous; 

 nodes provided with a ring of silky ai)i)ressed li.iirs; brandies usually short and 

 sterile. 



Leaves of the stem 4 or 5; sheaths usually distant, glabi-ous, ciliate on the 

 margins, villous at the apex; blade 1 to :J lines broad, usually 5 to '.) inches long, 

 Hat, glabrous beneath, scabrous above; ligule about 1 line long, cut nearly to the 

 base into silky hairs. Radical leaves like those of the stem. 



Inflorescence a contracted si>ike-like panicle 3 to 4 lines broad (exclusive of 

 the bi'istles), 3 to G inches long, on a moderately long exserted peduncle; Vj ranches 

 of the i)anicle shoit (1 to 3 lines), spikelets sessile or nearly so, some of the 

 pedicels sterile and prolonged into slender scabrous bristles 6 lines long or less. 

 Spikelets ovate, acute, semi- terete, I to 1^ lines long. 



Olumes 4; 2 lower empty, membranaceous, glabrous; first broadly ovate, acute, 

 3-nerved, one-half the length of spikelet; second broadly oval, obtu.se or mucro- 

 nate, 5-nerved, nearly as long as the spikelet, fittingclosely to the flowering glume; 

 third like the second but slightly longer, acute, and subtending a rudimentary 

 lanceolate hyaline palet; fourth (flowering), when in position, narrowly ovate, acute, 

 coriaceous, rounded and minutely rugose-roughened on the back, obscurely 5-nerved. 



Flower hermaphrodite. Palet lanceolate when in position, coriaceous (the in- 

 folded margins membranaceous), fiat on the back when mature, obscurely 2-nerved. 

 Stamens 3. Stigmas 2, oblong. 



Plate V; «, spikelet with its accompanying bristle. The spikelet is opened 

 to show its parts. The flowering glume is represented too short, and should be 

 acute, while the back of the palet is not represented as flat. 



This grass has much the habit of German millet, and with proper cultivation 

 would probably produce an abundant cro^j. 



