356 GRASS FAMILY. 



viz. HIEROCHLOA RORE\Lis, SENECA or HOLY-GRASS, being rare) : low, 

 slender, soft and smooth ; the pale brown or greenish spikelets crowded in an 

 evident spike-like panicle ; each composed of a pair of thin very unequal glumes, 

 above and within these a pair of obcordate or 2-lobed hairy empty palets, one 

 with a bent awn from near its base, the other with a shorter awn higher up ; 

 above and within these a pair of very small smooth and roundish palets, of 

 parchment-like texture, enclosing 2 stamens and the 2-styled pistil, finally in- 

 vesting the grain. 1J. 



Alopectirus pratnsis, MEADOW FOXTAIL. Introduced from Europe 

 abundantly into meadows E. : flowering in spring ; stem about 2 high, bearing 

 few pale soft leaves, terminated by a cylindrical soft and dense spike, or what 

 seems to be so, for the spikelets are really borne on short side branches, not on 

 the main axis ; these spikelets very flat contrary to the glumes, which are con- 

 duplicate, united by their edges towards the base, keeled, fringed-ciliate on the 

 keel; these enclose a single conduplicate lower palet (the upper one wholly 

 wanting) which bears a long awn from below the middle of the back, and sur- 

 rounds 3 stamens and the pistil. 



* # Awn, if any, from the apex of the glumes or palets. 



*- Spikelets densely crowded in a long perfectly cylindrical apparent spike, each spike- 

 let strictly l-floivered : ylumes 2, keeled and nearly conduplicate, aim-pointed, 

 much larger and of firmer texture than the thin and truncate a wnl ess palets. 



Phl&um prat6nse, CAT-TAIL GRASS, TIMOTHY, or HERD'S GRASS ; 

 introduced from Eu. ; a coarse but most valuable meadow grass, 2 -4 high, 

 with green roughish spike 3' -8' long; the small spikelets are crowded on very 

 short branches, and therefore the seeming spike is not a true one. 11 



- *- Spikelets strictly spiked all on one side of a Jlattened jointless rhachis, much 

 crowded: the 2-5 spikes digitate, i. e. all on the apex of the flowering stem: 

 palets awnless. Finger-grass might be sought here ; see Panicum below. 



*+ Flower only one to each spikelet, and a mere rudiment beyond it, awnless. 



lon, BERMUDA or SCUTCH GRASS. An introduced weed 

 chiefly S., where it is useful in sandy soil, where a better grass is not to 

 be had ; creeping extensively, the rigid creeping stems with short flattish 

 leaves and sending up flowering shoots a few inches high, bearing the 3-5 slender 

 spikes. 11 



w .M. Flowers 3-5 or more in each spikelet, the uppermost generally imperfect : 

 seed loose, proportionally large, rough-wrinkled. (T) 



Eleusine Indica, CRAB-GRASS, YARD-GRASS, DOG'S-TAIL, or WIRE- 

 GRASS. Introduced only in yards or lawns N., more abundant S., where it is 

 valuable for cattle ; low, spreading over the ground, pale ; glumes and palets 

 pointless. 



Dactyloctfcnium JEgyptlacum, EGYPTIAN GRASS. Yards and fields, 

 chiefly a weed, S. : creeping over the ground, low ; spikes dense and thickish ; 

 glumes flattened laterally and keeled, one of them awn-pointed, the strongly 

 keeled boat-shaped lower palet also pointed. 



-- H- Spikelets spiked alternately on opposite sides of a zigzag jointed rhachis. 

 ** Glume only one to the solitary spikelet, which stands edgewise. 



Ii61ium per6nne, DARNEL, EYE-GRASS, or RAY GRASS. Introduced 

 from Europe : a good pasture-grass, l-2 high, with loose spike 5' -6' long, 

 of 12 or more about 7-flowered spikelets placed edgewise, so that one row of 

 flowers is next the glume, the other next the rhachis ; lower palet short-awned 

 or awnless. 



+ Glumes a pair to the single spikelet, right and left at each joint of the rhachis. 



Triticum ripens, COUCH-GRASS, QUITCH or QUICK-GRASS, &c., belongs 

 to the section with perennial roots; this spreads amazingly by its Vigorous 

 long running rootstocks, is a peat in cultivated fields, arid is too coarse and 



