AGRICULTURAL BOTANY. 273 



15. Eleusine Indiea: Crowfoot Grass. 



The seeds of these two species of annual grasses were originally imported from India, but 

 have become naturalized, and succeed very well in our climate. The former comes earlier 

 than the crowfoot. The latter is more succulent, and requires a rich and moist soil. Both 

 are good grasses, and make excellent hay. The ground, however, requires to be annually 

 plowed and manured. 



16. Elymus Virginicus: Lime Grass; Wild Rye. This, as well as two other native species, 

 is perennial, and is a winter grass, but does not make a permanent pasture. 



17. Pennisetum typhoideum: Egyptian Millet. This is one of the most productive of all 

 our grasses, and can be cut three or four times in the season, if proper care be used to cut 

 it above the joints. In the vicinity of Charleston, S. C., it is extensively cultivated as 

 green fodder. 



18. Sorghum halapense: Panicled Millet; Means Grass. A native of Nubia, Syria, and 

 Greece. It possesses many properties of a good grass, is deep-rooted, grows rapidly, is 

 relished by cattle in its green state, and can be made into good hay. 



19. Lolium perenne: Rye Grass; Lolium Italicum: Italian Rye Grass. These two species 

 are cultivated in Europe, the latter in the South of France and Italy with great success. 

 It is perennial, and especially adapted to a dry, sandy soil. It is sown in the autumn, at the 

 rate of 16 Ibs. to the acre, the seed harrowed in. 



20. Leersia oryzoides: Rice Grass. This is a most productive grass, and is found in all 

 the swampy places where there are running streams in our Southern country. It can be cut 

 several times during the summer, and its hay is equal to timothy. It will, however, only 

 flourish in swampy places, partly inundated. 



21. Spartina alabra: Salt Marsh Grass. The salt marsh is cut in its green state as food 

 for horses and neat-cattle, and may be converted into hay. Its saline properties render it a 

 favorite food for horses. It grows only in muddy places overflowed by salt water. 



22. Holciu polygamum : Guinea Grass. This produces an abundant crop of green food. 

 It is extensively used in Cuba, Jamaica, and other West India Islands. It produces seeds 

 in the vicinity of Charleston, S. C., but the roots are usually killed in winter. 



23. Ceratochloa breviaristata: Horn Grass; Fescue Grass. I have not seen this grass cul- 

 tivated. It is a native of a soil and climate somewhat similar to our own, and merits our 

 attention from the high encomiums bestowed upon it. 



24. Stipa spata : Lewis Grass ; Musquit Grass. The term musquit or muskeet is applied 

 both to trees and grasses in Texas. Several shrubby, dwarfish species of Acacia and 

 Mimosa are called muskeet-trees. Their tufts of rich grasses are called muskeet grass. A 

 friend sent to me the seeds of what he supposed muskeet grass, gathered in several localities, 

 which, when planted, proved to be three distinct species of grass, one of which was Holcus 

 lanatus. At the recent meeting at Columbia of agriculturists of the South, I was favored, 

 through the secretary, with specimens of what he supposed to be the productive Western 

 grass called muskeet. I can scarcely doubt but the true species has at last been discovered. 

 It has been cultivated in Florida and Mississippi with the most favorable results. It proves 

 to be a Stipa, and differing widely from any of the seeds originally sent as those of the 

 muskeet grass. 



Specimens of this grass were found in the herbarium of the celebrated traveller Lewis, 

 who, in the expedition with Clark, obtained them on the banks of the Missouri, and were 

 described by Pursh under the name of Stipa juncea. It was subsequently found and de- 

 scribed by Nuttall, who obtained it on the prairies of the West. Both botanists had mistaken 

 it for the Stipa juncea of Europe. The latter, moreover, adds, "Not a single species of this 

 genus is useful in agriculture." I have a sanguine hope that the very species he was 

 describing may yet prove a valuable acquisition to the agriculture of the South. The 

 species being different from that of juncea, with which I have carefully compared it, 

 required a specific name, and I had given it the name of S. Lewissii, when I was informed 

 by the eminent botanist, Mr. Gray, that it had been named by Trinius as Stipa spata, which 

 it must retain. As we have so often been perplexed by the name muskeet, I propose, as its 

 English name, that of Lewis's Grass. 



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