FESTUCE^ 



225 



ditches from Texas to Cali- 

 fornia. 



248. Eragrostis Host. — 

 A large genus of over 100 

 species, found throughout 

 the warmer regions of the 

 world. Annuals or peren- 

 nials with open, narrow or 

 spike-like panicles; spike- 

 lets many -flowered, awn- 

 less; rachilla usually con- 

 tinuous, the paleas often 

 persistent after the fall of 

 the lemmas and fruits. Sev- 

 eral species are weeds intro- 

 duced from the Old World. 

 One of these, E. cilianensis 

 (All.) Link (E. megastachya 

 (Koel.) Link) (Fig. 51), 

 called snake-grass or stink- 

 grass, emits a disagreeable 

 odor from glands along the 

 keels of the lemmas. Teff, 

 E. ahyssinica (Jacq.) Link, 

 is an important food-plant in Abyssinia and has been 

 tried in other countries as a forage plant. Several 

 species are occasionally cultivated for ornament, the 

 panicles being used for dry bouquets. 



249. Distichlis Raf. — Salt-grass. Low dioecious per- 

 ennials of seacoasts and alkaline flats. Only 1 species, D. 

 spicata (L.) Greene (Fig. 52), is found in the United 

 States. This is common in salt-marshes throughout the 

 country. The culms are erect fom extensively creeping 



o 



Fig. 51. Eragrostis cilianensis. Plant 

 reduced; 2 spikelets, showing variable 

 number of florets; portion of rachilla from 

 which some of the florets have fallen, X3. 

 (U. S. Dept. Agr.,Div. Agrost., Bull. 17.) 



