56 



permanent pasture grass, and is thoroughly naturalized, if not a native. It is almost 

 the only grass grown there for winter pasture or for lawns. It stands drought well, 

 and grows anywhere except on very wet ground. It can be subdued by one year of 

 thorough cultivation. 



Prof. J. B. Killebrew, in "The Grasses of Tennessee,'' says: 



Occasionally the traveler meets w ith patches of Bermuda grass in the cotton fields 

 of the South, where it is carefully avoided by the planter, any disturbance giving new 

 start to its vigorous roots. Some ditch around it, others inclose it and let shrubbery 

 do the work of destruction. It forms a sward so tough that it is almost impossible 

 for a plow to pass through it. It will throw its runners over a rock (5 feet across and 

 hide it from view, or it will run down the sides of the deepest gully and stop its 

 washing. It does not, however, endure shade, and in order to obtain a good stand 

 the weeds must be mown from it the first year. It would be a good grass to mix with 

 blue grass, as when it disappears in winter the blue grass and white clover would 

 spring up to keep the ground in a constant state of verdure. This experiment has 

 been tried with eminent success. It grows luxuriantly on the top of Lookout Mount- 

 ain, having been set there many years ago. This mountain is 2,200 feet high, and 

 has, of course, excessively cold winters. 



(Plate 59.) 



SPARTINA. 



A genus of coarse, perennial grasses, growing mainly in marshy grounds, from 

 strong, scaly root stocks. The flowers are produced in one-sided spikes of the pan- 

 icle. The spikelets are closely sessile, and mostly crowded on the triangular axis. 

 They are one-flowered, and much flattened laterally. The empty glumes are unequal 

 strongly compressed and keeled, acute, the keel mostly hispid, 'the upper one longer 

 than the low r er; flowering glume compressed and keeled, awnless; palet about 

 equaling its glume. 



Spartina cynosuroides (Cord Grass). 



A coarse and stout grass, growing from 3 to 5 feet high, with leaves 2 to 3 feet 

 long. The top of the culm for about 1 foot is occupied by from five to ten spikes, Avhich 

 are from 1 to 3 inches long, and the spikelets are very closely imbricated. The 

 lower glume is linear-lanceolate, the upper one lanceolate with a long, stiff point. 



This species has a wide range, from near the coast to the base of the 

 Eocky Mountains. In the Western States it is very common, often 

 forming a large part of the grass of the sloughs and wet marshes of 

 that region. It is frequently cut for hay, but is of inferior quality 

 unless cut very early. 



In the bottom-lands of the Mississippi, where it is abundant, it has 

 been manufactured into paper. (Plate 60.) 



Spartina juncea (Salt Grass; Marsh Grass). 



A much smaller species than the preceding, usually 1 to 2 feet high, from a 

 creeping, scaly root stock, the culms rigid and the leaves nearly round and rush-like. 

 There are from two to five spikes, which are 1 to 2 inches long and on short peduncles. 



This grass forms a large portion of the salt-marshes near the coast. 

 It makes an inferior hay, called salt hay, which is worth about half as 

 much per ton as Timothy and redtop. It is much employed as a pack- 

 ing material by hardware and crockery dealers. (Plate 61.) 



