DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME COMMON WEEDS 145 



nearly round, covered with strong, more or less pubes- 

 cent, barbed spines, becoming very hard at maturity, and 

 readily falling off; blooms from June to October. Found 

 in sandy fields along the Mississippi, and other streams, 

 southern states, and on the Pacific coast. Distributed 

 by means of the seeds and burs which cling to the fur or 

 hair of animals. It injures stock which eat it, because the 

 burs produce inflammation. 



Rice Cut Grass (Leersia oryzoides, (L.) Swartz). A 

 rather stout, rough and usually much-branched grass, 

 two to four feet high, with flat leaves, and an open, pale- 

 green or straw-colored panicle; nodes usually bearded; 

 sheaths eared, scabrous on the sides at the apex ; very rough, 

 the points of the minute spines directed downward ; ligule 

 membranaceous ; leaf blade three to ten inches long, very 

 acute, contracted, often hairy at the base, rough on both 

 surfaces, margins very rough, with minute sharp spines, 

 which on the lower part of the leaf are directed toward 

 the base, and on the upper part are directed forward 

 toward the apex; panicle six to ten inches long, the 

 slender ascending branches two to four inches long, naked 

 below, flower-bearing toward the ends, spikelets rather 

 flat; stamens, three; within the lower sheaths may be 

 found cleistogamic or hidden fruiting spikelets; flowers 

 in August and on through October. Found along 

 streams and ditches and in marshes, usually in the open ; 

 common. 



Canary Grass (Phalaris canariensis, L.). An erect an- 

 nual, one to three feet tall, with flat leaves and a dense, 

 ovoid panicle, or head about one inch long; two empty 

 glumes, white, with green veins ; third and fourth glumes 

 rudimentary, being scalelike and smooth ; fifth or flower- 

 ing glume hairy; blooms in July and August. Natural- 

 ized in northern states, the seed being used extensively 

 as a bird food. 



Vanilla Grass or Holy Grass (Hicrochloe odorata, (L.) 



