AND OTHER FORAGE PLANTS. 87 



stopping with him every year, declare this hay to be unsurpass- 

 ed for excellency by any hay produced in any other State. 



This Paspalum Iceve, Smooth Erect Paspalum is perennial, 

 growing naturally in dry woods, margins of fields, and open 

 meadows, two to four feet high, with three to five slender spikes 

 three or four inches long near the top of the simple erect stem. 

 The leaves are rather long and broad. It grows rapidly in the 

 cotton fields, even on poor clay and sandy hills. The seeds are 

 large and nutritious and fall easily while apparently green, 

 though really mature, the stems and foliage remaining green 

 long after. It should therefore be cut before the seeds get ripe 

 enough to fall off. It is usually cut once a year. It might be 

 cut two or three times with much more profit. 



2. P. PR^COX, Early Paspalum, grows in the same localities 

 as the preceding, erect, about the same height and having three 

 to six spikes. Its leaves are narrower and the sheaths often 

 purplish. The seeds are in pairs arranged in three rows on the 

 straight flattened rachis, and the glume three nerved, often dis- 

 colored. The preceding has the glume with five nerves and the 

 single seeds arranged in two rows on a flexuous rachis. 



#. P. RACEMULOSUM, Stemmed Paspalum, grows also in 

 same localities as the preceding, two or three teet high, bearing 

 two or three erect, slender spikes four inches long ; seeds single 

 or by pairs distinctly pedicelled, distant on the filiform rachis. 

 The leaves are long linear, glaucous, sprinkled as are the sheaths 

 with long white hairs. 



4. P. CILIATIFOLIUM, Hairy Slender Paspalum. 



This is quite common both on dry and wet soils, with stems 

 one or two feet long, often prostrate ; frequently two or more 

 peduncles rise from the upper sheath, each bearing often but one 

 spike ; leaves flat, one to three fourths of an inch wide, Vavy, 

 fringed on the edges and with the sheaths hairy all over. 



5. P. DISTICHUM, Joint Grass, Twin Paspalum. 



One name is from the flower stems bearing usually a pair of 

 spikes, (which are one to one and a half inches long,) the other 

 from its many-jointed diffuse stems creeping along the ground 

 inserting roots at every joint. The flower bearing part of the x 

 stem rises about a foot high. This species grows as well where 

 partly submerged as otherwise. 



6. P. DIGITARIA, Finger Shaped Paspalum, has creeping, 

 branching stem, finally rising a foot or two high ; often having 

 several elongated peduncles from the upper sheath, bearing fil- 

 iform, horizontally spreading spikes three or four inches long ; 

 sheaths compressed and leaves mostly fringed on the margins. 

 This is found in open swamps. 



7. P. VAGINATUM, Sheathed Paspalum, is found in brackish 

 swamps. The short jointed stems are diffuse, creeping, two to 

 four feet long ; the flowering branches erect, five to ten inches 

 high ; the dilated sheaths persistent. 



