LEPTOCHLOA. 161 



containing a loose, oval, and wrinkled seed. Low 

 annuals, with flat leaves, and flowers much as in 

 Poa. 



Name from Eleusin, the town where Ceres, the 

 goddess of harvests, was worshipped. 



1. E. Indica (Crab Grass, Wire Grass, Crowsfoot). 

 A useful grass in Mississippi, Alabama, arid adjoin- 

 ing States ; growing luxuriantly, and is plowed 

 down as a fertilizer also serving as a hay and for 

 pasturage. 



24. LEPTOCHLOA Beau v. OXYDENIA, SLENDER 



GRASS. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. 



Spikelets 3 many-flowered (the uppermost flower 

 imperfect), loosely spiked on one side of a long fili- 

 form rhachis ; the spikes racemed. Glumes membra - 

 naceous, keeled, and often awl-pointed, the ripper 

 one somewhat larger. Lower palet 3-nerved, with the 

 lateral nerves next the ciliate or hairy margins awn- 

 less, or bristle-awned at the entire or 2-toothed tip, 

 larger than the upper. Stamens 2 or 3. Seed some- 

 times loose in the pericarp. Ours annuals. Leaves 

 flat. 



Name composed of leptos, slender, and cJiloa, 

 grass, from the long, attenuated spikes. 



Gray. 



1. L. Mucronata (Pointed Slender Grass). Found 

 in fields from Virginia to Illinois and southward. An 



