GENERA OF GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



219 



Our species is Stenotaphrum secimdatum (Walt.) Kuntze (S. 

 americanum Schrank) (fig. 132), found near the coast from North 

 Carolina to Florida and Texas, and southward, growing especially 



FIG. 131. Leptoloma cognatum. 

 Plant, X s ; two views of spike- 

 let and fertile floret, X 10. 



in alluvial or mucky soil. It is culti- 

 vated as a lawn grass in the coastal 

 cities under the name of St. Augus- 

 tine grass. The lawns of this grass 

 have a coarse texture but are other- 

 wise satisfactory. The grass is prop- 

 agated by setting out cuttings or 

 pieces of the stolons bearing shoots. 



113. ERIOCHLOA H. B. K. 



Spikelets dorsally compressed, 

 more or less pubescent, solitary or 

 sometimes in pairs, short-pediceled 

 or subsessile, in two rows on one side 

 of a narrow, usually hairy rachis, 

 the pedicels often clothed with long, 

 stiff hairs, the back of the fertile 

 lemma turned from the rachis; lower 

 rachilla joint thickened, forming a 

 more or less ringlike, usually dark- 

 colored callus below the second 

 glume, the first glume reduced to a 

 minute sheath about this and adnate 

 to it ; second glume and sterile lemma 

 about equal, acute or acuminate, 

 the lemma usually inclosing a hya- 

 line palea or sometimes a stami- 



