GRAMINEAE (GRASS FAMILY) 36 



Culms ten inches to two feet in length, with many branches, the 

 longer ones spreading and decumbent for part of their length, the 

 shorter ones erect. Sheaths very loose, slightly flattened, smooth 

 but with hairy margins, the ligule conspicuously fringed ; blades 

 two to five inches long, smooth, usually flat but sometimes involute. 

 Racemes bearing eight to twenty clusters of two to six flowers, the 

 clusters subtended by ovoid or globular involucres which later 

 enclose the seeds, forming hairy burs about a quarter-inch in diam- 

 eter, thickly set with stiff, sharp, finely barbed prickles, which 

 are strong enough to penetrate shoe leather. (Fig. 11.) 



Means of control 



Small areas about sheep-washing places should be hoe-cut, hand- 

 pulled, or burned over before the burs ripen. A sandy pasture 

 or meadow infested with the weed should be burned over, culti- 

 vated, and fertilized before reseeding to better growths. As a 

 waste-land weed, a whole neighborhood should be interested in its 

 extirpation because of its habit of making any passing animal or 

 person its carrier to a new field. 



RICE CUT-GRASS 



Leersia oryzoldes, Sw. 



Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds and by rootstocks. 



Time of bloom : August to September. 



Seed-time : September to October. 



Range: Newfoundland to western Ontario, southward to Florida 



and Texas. 

 Habitat: Swamps, and along streams and ditches. 



A bothersome weed in open ditches, which are frequently clogged 

 by the dense, tangled masses of its interlacing rootstocks. Culms 

 two to , four feet long, rather stout, decumbent at base, much 

 branched. Sheaths shorter than the internodes, very rough ; 

 blades three to ten inches long, one-fourth to nearly one-half inch 

 wide, very rough, the edges capable of cutting like a knife when 

 drawn through the fingers. Panicle loosely branched, lax and 

 bending, five to eight inches long, the one-seeded spikelets ar- 

 ranged in single rows on the branchlets and overlapping one an- 



