DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME COMMON WEEDS 149 



- A slender annual growing one to three feet high, form- 

 ing mats or turf; leaves very narrow, short and simple, 

 few-flowered, terminal and axillary, spikelike panicles 

 about one inch long and mostly inclosed in the somewhat 

 inflated leaf sheaths; spikelets short; blooms in August 

 and September. Rather common in dry fields and waste 

 places, especially toward the South. 



Small Rush Grass (Sporobolus neglectus, Nash). A 

 smooth, erect annual from six to twelve inches high, 

 springing from a usually decumbent base, slender often, 

 much-branched; sheaths about half as long as the inter- 

 nodes and inflated ; leaves narrow at the base, smooth 

 beneath, rough and hairy near the base above, attenuated 

 into a slender point, lower leaves elongated, the upper 

 one to three inches long and dry ; terminal panicle one 

 to two and one-half inches long, usually more or less in- 

 cluded in the upper sheath ; lateral panicles inclosed in 

 the sheaths; blooming period in August and September. 

 Very generally distributed in eastern North America. 



Red Top (Agrostis alba, L.). A well-known perennial 

 of exceedingly variable habits, with a smooth stem that : is 

 either erect or decumbent ; roots at the base or puts out 

 stolons ; from one to three feet high ; sheaths smooth ; 

 leaf blade linear or narrow-lanceolate, four to eight 

 inches long and smooth ; panicle narrow, with erect, 

 rather densely flowered branches, or lax and open, with 

 widely spreading branches; spikelets nearly sessile, or 

 sometimes with pedicels; flowering glumes slightly 

 shorter than the empty glumes. Blooms from June to 

 September. Common throughout the United States ex- 

 cepting in the extreme South. Found very generally in the 

 North, usually growing on low grounds and is an excel- 

 lent forage plant. Sometimes troublesome in oat fields. 



Wild Oats (Avcna fatua, L.). An erect, smooth an- 

 nual, three to five feet high, with flat leaves and spread- 

 ing panicles of large oatlike, two to four-flowered spike- 



