GRAMINEAE (GRASS FAMILY) 63 



seed to infest the soil, and one or two seasons of careful work 

 should conquer it. 



GOOSE-GRASS 



Eleusine Indica, Gaertn. 



Other English names : Yard-grass, Crab-grass, Wire-grass, Crow-foot 

 Grass. Indian Eleusine. 



Introduced. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom: June to September. 



Seed-time: July to October. 



Range : In nearly all parts of North America except the far North. 



Habitat : Farmyards, roadsides, and waste places ; often trouble- 

 some in lawns. 



A coarse grass that came to us from 

 India and behaves as though domesticated. 

 It grows from clustered, fibrous roots, the 

 culms six inches to two feet long, flattened, 

 decumbent at base, from which there are 

 usually several , branches. Sheaths loose, 

 overlapping, compressed, smooth but hairy 

 at the throat; ligule very short and mi- 

 nutely toothed, blades three inches to a 

 foot long, often crowded at the base of 

 the culm, rather thick, pale green. Spikes 

 two to ten, digitate at the end of the stalk 

 or one or two below near the top, one to 

 three inches long; spikelets appressed, 

 three- to five-flowered; glumes unequal, 

 rough-keeled. Seeds black and wrinkled. 

 (Fig. 24.) 



Means of control 



In yards and waste places the grass 

 should be hoe-cut or hand-pulled before 

 it develops seeds. In lawns, a few drops 

 of crude carbolic acid squirted into the 

 heart of a tuft with a common machine 

 oil-can will kill it, without defacing 

 the smoothness of the sward as a hoe p IG 24. Goose-grass 



would do. (Eleusine indica). X i. 



