The Book of Grasses 



f5 



Slender Aristida 

 Arislida gracilis 





until the pressure of midsummer was past before giving their 

 seeds to the care of Nature. 



Among other grasses of 



late summer the Aristidas 



are common in dry soil 



throughout the country. 



The English name of Three- 



awned Grass is descriptive 



of a peculiarity of the genus, 



as each flowering scale bears 



triple awns. In Poverty 



Grass and Slender Aristida 



the outer awns of the 



flowering scale are shorter 

 t/^ than the middle awn and 



'^ - are upright, while the long 



middle awn spreads stiffly 



at right angles to the spike. 



When the spikelets are 



comparatively few, as in the 



species mentioned above, 



these horizontally spreading 



awns are so characteristic 



that from them alone the 



grasses may easily be recog- 

 nized. 



Poverty Grass (Aristida 



dichotoma) is the smallest of 



the eastern Aristidas and 



bears but short awns. Slen- 

 der Aristida has a slightly 



larger flowering-head whose 



horizontal awns are fre- 

 quently one half inch in 



length. The panicles of 



Purplish Aristida are long 



and very bristly; the outer 



awns of each flowering scale 



nearly equal the horizontal 



middle awn in length, and 



102 





f/^ 



Purplish Aristida 

 Aristida pur purasccns 



