AND OTHER FORAGE PLANTS. 33 



from two to four feet high, commonly prostrate at the base. 

 The leaves are long and narrow, and the sheaths very rough and 

 sharp to the hand drawn downward in contact with them. 



2. L. VIRGINICA. Small flowered White Grass, Virginia 

 Cut Grass. This grass also is beautiful, more delicate and 

 smoother than the preceding. It grows in the same localities as 

 the other. Both have been cut for hay, of which it is claimed 

 by some, they make an excellent quality. As they often grow in 

 soft mud and shallow water, they must be moved to dry land 

 as soon as cut in order to dry them. They are not of sufficient 

 value to induce any one to grow them ; but yet where growing 

 spontaneously, they may be mowed with profit. 



3. L. HEXANDRA. This species, with slender stems from 

 one to six feet long and narrow rigid leaves, would be of little 

 value if it could be mowed. But as it grows, in lakes and ponds 

 even though water be pretty deep, this is impracticable. 



4. L. LENTICULARIS. Catch Fly Grass. This species having 

 much the same habit as the preceding is of as little value. It is 

 chiefly interesting because Pursh says that he has observed it 

 catching flies with its pales, which in structure resemble the leaves 

 of the Venus' fly-trap. 



ZlZAMA. 



1. Z. AQUATICA, Wild Rice, Indian Rice, Water Oats. This 

 grass abounds in marshes, ponds, shallow streams and on some 

 of the floating islands or shaking prairies. The broad leaves are 

 rough underneath and the stems from four to ten feet high, bear- 

 ing a widely spreading pyramidal panicle one or two feet long, 

 the long lower branches of which bear the staminate blooms, the 

 upper erect branches bear the pistilate or fertile flowers. The 

 cylindrical seeds, half an inch long, when ripe fall by a slight 

 motion of the stems, and furnish a large quantity of food for birds 

 and other animals. The Indians often harvest the seed .for their 

 own food, as other races may have done in some cases, this being 

 the folle avoine of the early French settlers of the Mississippi val- 

 ley. When the anthers burst, the grains of pollen, being light- 

 er than the atmosphere, float up to the stigrnas ; just the reverse 

 of what occurs in our Indian corn. This grass is relished by 

 stock, may be cut twice a season, and yields a large quantity of 

 good hay. It must be cut before maturity to obtain the best re- 

 sults. 



2. Z. MILIACEA, Prolific Rice, grows in the same localities 



