No. 14. 



TRAGUS RACEMOSUS Hall. 



Plant annual. 



Hoots very slender. 



Stem branching and procumbent at the base, sometimes rooting at the lower 

 nodes, glabrous, 15 inches or less in height; depauperate plants sometimes simple, 

 erect, and but 2 to 3 inches high. 



Leaves of the stem 3 to 6; sheaths usually not contiguous, glabrous, often some- 

 what swollen; blade 1 to 2 lines broad, 1 to 2 inches long, or the uppermost nearly 

 obsolete, glabrous except the coarsely ciliate-toothed margins, thick, pale green; 

 ligule a dense row of short hairs. 



Inflorescence a dense cylindrical spike of clusters of spikelets 2| to 3 lines 

 thick, 1 to 4 inches long, frequently sheathed at the base, never long-peduncled; 

 clusters nearly sessile, arranged singly on all sides of the terete minutely pubescent 

 rachis. 



Spikelets 2 to 3 in each cluster, closely spiked (backs together) on a short ra- 

 chis; uppermost commonly reduced to a single echinate glume; lowest and usu- 

 ally the middle one perfect; rachis sometimes produced as a rudiment above the 

 base of the upper flower. 



Glumes 3; first ovate, small, thin, hyaline, nerveless; second thick, ovate to 

 lanceolate, acute, the back ridged with several (commonly 5 to 7) nerves converg- 

 ing at the apex and beset with hooked spines; third (flowering) lanceolate, acute, 

 mucronate-awned, slightly coriaceous, glabrous, 3-nerved. 



Flower single, hermaphrodite. Palet lanceolate, membranaceous, 2-nerved. 

 Stamens 3; anthers short, oblong; stigmas cylindrical, slender. 



Grain light-brown, oblanceolate-oblong, slightly obcompressed,apiculate,short- 

 stipitate, about ^ line long. 



PLATE XIV; a, cluster of two spikelets opened to show the parts. The spike- 

 let on the right shows the first glume (very small), the second glume (echinate), 

 the flowering glume and its palet, and between them an organ probably meant to 

 represent an anther. The spikelet to the left shows the same parts except the 

 first glume which is replaced by the rudimentary prolongation of the rachis. The 

 second spikelet should be raised on a slight prolongation of the rachis. 



This is a widely distributed semi-tropical grass, not of economic value. 



