NORTH-CAROLINA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



171 



BROMU8 



SECALINUS CHESSCHEAT. (Fig. 16.) 



Stem glabrous, erect, 

 swollen at the joints, leaves 

 ciliate, pubescent on the 

 upper surface. Panicle 

 branching -jerect or nod- 

 ding ; spikelets compressed 

 oblong ovate, florets about 

 10 longer than the bristles. 



The remarkable views 

 which are entertained of 

 this plant, excuse the no- 

 tice of this worthless grass 

 in this place. It has been 

 a common opinion with a 

 very large proportion of 

 farmers, that wheat chan- 

 ges into chess, the grass 

 under consideration. This 

 has frequently been, in 

 one sense, favored by the 

 fact that when wheat has 

 been winter-killed, chess 

 has sprung up in its place, 

 therefore, to those who 

 have not been careful ob- 

 servers, it has seemed that 

 the wheat itself has un- 

 dergone the change which 

 they maintain ; usually, 

 this view seems rational, 

 because chess has not been 

 observed by them in this 

 particular place in former 

 times. Notwithstanding 

 this apparent support to 

 the doctrine, it only re- 

 quires a good eye to detect 

 chess in almost any corner 



(Fio. 16.) 



