52 THE GRASSES OF MAINE. 



57. DANTHONIA SPICATA, Beauvois. 



DaM-tho' -ni-a spi-ca'-ta. 



PLATE XXVIII. 



Common Names. Wild Oat-Grass, Wire Grass, Spiked Wild 

 Oat-Grass, White Top, Old Fog. We have heard this grass called 

 June Grass in some parts of the State. 



Perennial. Stems erect, slender, from twelve to eighteen inches 

 high; leaves very narrow, flat or involute, more or less hairy, the 

 lower ones numerous ; spikelets few ; flowering glume hairy. 



This grass is common in dry open woods and fields on poor worn- 

 out soils. Flowers in July. We have always considered this to be 

 rather an inferior kind of grass, yet there are some farmers who 

 hold it in high esteem ! Dr. Vasey, of the Department ol Agricul- 

 ture, Washington, D. C., one ot the highest authorities on the 

 grasses, says it is a grass of very little value. Hon. J. S. Gould 

 says he once had a field which, in one very dry season, bore scarcely 

 anything but this grass. The scythes had to be ground twice a day 

 or they would slip over the slender stems without cutting them. 

 When it was fed to cattle in the winter, although the mangers were 

 kept well filled, they bellowed with hunger. The horses became 

 hide-bound, and the cows shrank in their milk. It was rather better 

 than rye straw, but not much. Specimens from New Hampshire 

 were analyzed in Washington, and gave ash 4.38, fat 3.80, nitrogen- 

 free extract 5G.92, crude fiber 29.11, albuminoids 5.79. 



Genus AVENA, Linneus. 

 A-ve'-na. 



The ancient Latin name for oats. 



Spikelets from three to many-flowered, in an open panicle, the 

 flowers becoming of a harder texture than the large and nearly equal 

 lanceolate, acute glumes ; flowering glume with two teeth at the end 

 and a twisted awn arising from the back. 



To this genus belongs the oats (Avena sativa, L.) of cultivation. 



