GRASSES OF IOWA. 209 



North America. Drj soil, and prairies of Illinois, Wisconsin 

 (Vasey; La Crosse, Pammel, Charlotte King and Dora Pammel), Min- 

 nesota (Sandberg), Iowa, Texas. Colorado (Ft. Collins, Cow en), Wy- 

 oming; Mexico (Palmer, 1886). 



6. ' ELEUSINE. 



Ele.'sine Gaertn. Fruct. 1: 7. pi. 1. 178S. Endlicher. Gen. PI 93. 

 Bentham & Hooker. Gen. PI. 3: 1172. Hackelin Englerand Prantl. Nat. Pflanz 

 Fam. II. 2: 61. /. 71. Scribner. Bull. U. S. Dept. Agrl. Div. Agros. 20: 108. 

 /. 82. (Rev. ed.) 



Cynosurus Schreb. Beschr. Gras. PI. 35. Beau v. Agros. 72. /. 3. 



Dactyloctenium Kunth. Enurn. PI. 1: 261. 



Spikelcts 2 to 6-flowered, with a terminal, imperfect Mower or naked 

 rudiment, closely imbricate-spiked on one side of a flattish rachis; the 

 spikes digitate. Glumes membranaceous, shorter than the flowers; flow- 

 eririg glume anc] palet awnless, the glume ovate, keeled, larger than the 

 paler. Stamens }. Pericarp (utricle) containing a loose, wrinkled 

 seed. Low annuals, with flat leaves, and flowers much as in Poa. ( Named 

 from a Greek town where Ceres, the goddess of harvests, was wor- 

 shipped.) 



Species about 7. Found chiefly in tropical and sub-tropical regions 

 of the Old World ; one species is a weed in warmer temperate regions 

 of the world. 



1. ELEUSINE INDICA. 



Eleusine Indica Gaertn. Fruct. and Sem. 1: 8. 1788. Watson and 

 Coulter. Gray. Man. Bot. 656. pi. 9. f. 1-6. 1890. (6 ed.) Scribner. Grasses 

 of Tenn. Bull. Univ. Tenn. Agr. Exp. Sta. 7: 90. /. 120. 1894. Beal. Grasses 

 of N. A. 2: 430. /. 78. 1896. Nash in Britton and Brown. 111. Fl. 1: 181. 

 /. 415. 1896. Scribner. Bull. U. S. Dept. Agrl. Div. Agros. 7: 215. f. 209. 

 1900. (3 ed.) 



DESCRIPTION*. 



Wire Grass. A coarse, tufted annual, with erect or spreading 

 stems, 6 to 24 inches ( 1 s-SS cm. ) high, and digitate spikes. Sheaths com- 

 pressed and sparingly ciliate; leaf-blade long ami narrow, both surfaces 

 glabrous, or the upper scabrous and thinly hairy. Spikes live to seven, 

 2 to 4 inches (5-10 cm.) long, digitate at the apex of the culm, often 

 with one or two lower down, widely spreading; spikelets closely imbri- 

 cated, i\ to 2 lines (37-s mm.) long, three to six-flowered; glumes 

 obtuse, the first small and one-nerved, the second larger and with the 

 flowering glumes, three to rive-nerved. Seeds rugose, enclosed within a 

 thin, loose pericarp. Blooming from June to October. Waste or cul- 

 tivated ground. Eleusine Indica is naturalized in southern Iowa from 

 Davenport and .Muscatine to Council Bluffs. 



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