GENERA OF GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 179 



native of the Mediterranean region, but is common in the southern 

 United States, extending north to Maryland, southern Kansas, and 

 the interior valleys of California. 



Bermuda grass is the most important pasture grass of the South- 

 ern States, and is also widely utilized there as a lawn grass. On 

 alluvial ground it may grow sufficiently rank to be cut for hay. It 

 propagates readily by its rhizomes and stolons and on this account 

 may become a pestiferous weed in cultivated fields. This grass is 

 known also as wire-grass (especially the weedy form in fields), Ba- 

 hama grass in the West Indies, and manienie in the Hawaiian 

 Islands. 



A. larger form, Capriola dactylon maritima (H. B. K.) Hitchc. 

 (Cynodon maritimus H. B. K.), is found along the seacoast of 



Florida. 



87. WILI/KOMMIA Hack. 



Spikelets 1-flowered, dorsally compressed, sessile in two rows on 

 one side of a slender rachis and appressed to it, the rachilla some- 

 what lengthened below and above the second glume, disarticulating 

 just above it, not prolonged above the floret; glumes thin, the first 

 narrow, about two-thirds as long as the second, nerveless, obtuse, 

 the second 1-nerved, subacute; lemma about as long as the second 

 glume, awnless, 3-nerved, the lateral nerves near the margin, the 

 back of the lemma sparingly pubescent between the nerves, the mar- 

 gins densely covered with silky hairs; palea 2-nerved, the nerves 

 densely silky hairy. 



Annuals or perennials, with several short spikes scattered along a 

 main axis; our species, a low, tufted perennial. Species four; three 

 in South Africa, one in Texas. 



Type species: Willkommia sarmcntosa Hack. 



Willkommia Hack., Verh. Bot. Ver. Brandenburg 30: 145. 1888. Hackel de- 

 scribes two species, W. sarmentosa, a perennial, and W. annua, ,an annual, both 

 from German Southwest Africa. The first species is selected as the type. 



Willkommia texana Hitchc. (fig. 106), confined to a few localities 

 in Texas, in alkali spots in prairies and openings in woods, has no 

 agricultural importance. 



88. SCHEDONNARDUS StCUd. 



Spikelets 1-flowered, sessile and somewhat distant in two rows on 

 one side of a slender, continuous 3-angled rachis, appressed to its 

 slightly concave sides, the rachilla disarticulating above the glumes, 

 not prolonged; glumes narrow, stiff, somewhat unequal, acuminate, 

 1-nerved ; lemmas narrow, acuminate, a little longer than the glumes, 

 3-nerved. 



A low, tufted perennial, with stiff, slender, divergent spikes ar- 

 ranged rather remotely along a common axis. Species one, on the 

 Great Plains of the United States and in Argentina. 



