GRASS FAMILY. 471 



panicle loose, brownish, rarely pale ; glumes very acute, the flowering 

 one awned on the back at or below the middle. 2/ 



Festtica ovlna, Linn. Sheep's Fescue. Fine-leaved grass, i°-2°high, 

 tufted, with slender or involute pale leaves, 3-8-flowered spikelets in a 

 short 1-sided panicle, open in flowering, contracted afterwards, the flower- 

 ing glume rolled up, almost awl-shaped and tipped with a sharp point or 

 bristle-like awn. 21 



* * Flowers in slender spikes, which are either solitary (in the first) or 



digitate. 



Lblium perenne, Linn. Darnel, Rye Grass, Rat Grass. Intro- 

 duced from Eu. ; a good pasturage 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 zigzag 

 rhachis ; glume only one to the solitary spikelet, which stands edgewise ; 

 flowering glume short-awned or awnless. 21 



Cynodon Ddcty/on, Pers. 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, bear- 

 ing 3-5 slender spikes; flower only one to each spikelet, and a mere rudi- 

 ment beyond it, awnless. 21 



* # * Plant di(Ecious or monoecious ; the staminate spikelets 2-S-flowered 

 and sessile in 2 rows in 2-4 short, 1-sided, pedunculate spikes ; fertile 

 spikelets l-floioered, in a pair of 1-sided, capitate clusters, sessile in the 

 sheaths o/ the tipper leaves. 



Btichloe dactyloides, Engelm. Buffalo Grass. Low and tufted, 

 less than 4'-8' high ; sterile spikes less than i' long ; male plant taller 

 than the female. Plains W. of the Miss., where it is a loading pasture grass. 



V^. Weedy and Introduced Grasses, mostly in cultivated lands or 

 about loaste places, not cultivated. 



* Flowers in an open panicle. 



-t- Spikelets large, drooping lohen mature. 



Br6mus, Brome Grass. Spikelets large, at length drooping in an 

 open panicle ; containing 5-10 or more flowers, the flowering glume with 

 a short bristle point or an awn from the blunt, rounded tip or notch, 

 the palet soon adhering to the grain. Coarse grasses ; 2 or 3 wild 

 species are common, and the following are weeds of cultivation, from Eu. 

 The flrst tliree have flowers imbricated over each other, the spikelets 

 therefore rather dense. The last three have loose spikelets, the flowers 

 soon separating from one another. 



B. secd/inus, Linn. Common Chess, Cheat. Well known in wheat- 

 fields, and once thought to be a degenerated form of wheat ; nearly smooth ; 

 panicle open and spreading, even in fruit ; spikelets turgid ; flowers laid 

 broadly over each other in the two ranks ; flowering glume convex on the 

 back, concave within, awnless or short-awned. @ 



B. racemdsus, Linn. Upright Chess. Like the other, but with nar- 

 rower erect panicle contracted in fruit, flowering glume slender-awned, 

 and sheaths sometimes hairy. ® (§) 



B. mdllis, Linn. Soft Chess. Like the preceding, but soft-downy, 

 witli denser conical-ovate spikelets, and the long-awned glume acute. 



® @ 



B. dsper, Linn. Culm slender and panicle small ; spikelets loosely 



5-9-flowered ; the flowers oblong or lanceolate ; glume linear-lanceolate, 



scarcely keeled, and hairy near the margins, rather longer than the awn; 



sheaths and lower leaves downy or hairy. 21 



