46 



GRAMINEAE (GRASS FAMILY) 



about a third of an inch in diameter; spikelets one-flowered, 

 flattened, the glumes equal, united at base, obtuse, with hairy 

 keels ; the lemma much shorter, obtuse, and smooth, the awn 

 attached slightly below the middle and bent, the portion exserted 

 being usually twice as long as the glumes. (Fig. 19.) 



Means of control 



Drain the ground and follow with a season of intensive cultiva- 

 tion and fertilization before reseeding heavily to better and much 

 more profitable grasses, such as red-top and 

 timothy. 



SHEATHED RUSH-GRASS 



Spordbolus vaginiflorus, Wood 



Native. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 

 Time of bloom: July to August. 

 Seed-time: August to September. 

 Range : Maine to South Dakota, southward 



to Florida and Texas, 

 Habitat : Dry, sterile fields ; waste places. 



A thin, dry, and worthless grass which 

 should not be tolerated where anything 

 better can be made to grow. Culms 

 tufted, fifteen to twenty inches tall, slender, 

 smooth, divergent, or sometimes erect. 

 Sheaths about half as long as the internodes, 

 loose and inflated; leaves short, less than 

 an eighth of an inch wide, smooth beneath, 

 rough at base above, involute toward the 

 point, Panicles very numerous, included and 

 partly concealed in all the upper sheaths, 

 the terminal one only being usually exserted, 

 one to two inches long; spikelets thin, the 

 glumes unequal, long-pointed, smooth, the 

 lower one shorter ; lemma rough and hairy 

 and Deeded in length by the palea which 

 is very sharp-pointed. The seed is freely 



vaginiflorus). x J. 



