36 



POACEAE. 



26. CAPRIOLA Adans. 



Perennial grasses with short flat leaves and spieate inflorescence, the spikes 

 digitate. Spikelets l-flowered, seeund. Scales 3, the 2 lower empty, keeled; 

 flowering scale broader, membranous, compressed; palet a little shorter than 

 the scale, hyaline, 2-keeled. Stamens 3. Styles distinct. Stigmas short, plu- 

 mose. Grain free. [Name medieval Latin for the wild goat, that feeds on this 

 grass in waste rocky places.] Four known species, of which three are Austra- 

 lian, the following typical one widely distributed. 



1. Capriola Dactylon (L.) 

 Kuntze. Bermuda-grass. Scutch- 

 grass. Dog 's-tooth Grass. Run- 

 ning Grass. Hell-grass. Devil 

 Grass. (Fig. 54.) Culms 4-12' 

 tall, erect, from long creeping and 

 branching stolons, smooth and gla- 

 brous. Sheaths glabrous or some- 

 what hairy, crowded at the bases 

 of the culms and along the stolons; 

 leaves l'-3' long, l"-2i" wide, flat, 

 smooth beneath, scabrous above ; 

 spikes 4-5, Y-2' in length, digi- 

 tate; rachis flat; spikelets l"long; 

 outer scales his-pid on the keel, nar- 

 row, the first shorter than the sec- 

 ond, about two thirds as long as 

 the broad and strongly compressed 

 third one. [Paniciim Dactylon L. ; 

 Cynodon Dactylon Pers.] 



Common in all dry places, a per- 

 nicious weed in gardens, but desir- 

 able for forming lawns. Naturalized from Europe. Naturalized in the eastern 

 United States. Flowers nearly throughout the year. The name Bermuda-grass, by 

 which this grass is most widely known is unfortunate, as it is not a native of 

 Bermuda. 



27. EUSTACHYS Desv. 



Perennial grasses, with flat or folded usually obtuse leaf-blades and 

 spieate inflorescence, the spikes single, in pairs, or 3-many and digitate. 

 Spikelets usually l-flowered, rarely 2-flowered, sessile, crowded in 2 rows. 

 Scales 4, rarely 5, the 2 lower empty, persistent, unequal, keeled, the first 

 generally acute, the second oblong, .truncate or 2-lobed at the apex, short- 

 awned, the others awnless, mucronate, or short-awned, firmer than the empty 

 scales, the third scale enclosing a perfect flower and a palet, the fourth scale 

 empty, or rarely enclosing a staminate flower. [Greek, beautiful spikes.] 

 About 8 species, native of tropical America, the following typical. The genus 

 is united with Chloris by some authors. 



