30 



MEADOW FOXTAIL. 



Annual ; flowers in August. Grows from six to ten feet 

 high in shallow water. Ohio, Wisconsin, and the South. 



3. ALOPECURUS. Foxtail Grasses. 



Spikelets one-flowered; glumes boat- 

 shaped, compressed and keeled, nearly 

 equal, united at the base ; lower palea 

 awned on the back below the mid- 

 dle, upper palea wanting ; stamens 

 three ; styles mostly united ; stigmas 

 long and leathered; leaves smooth and 

 flat. Panicle contracted into a cylin- 

 drical, soft spike, like the tail of a fox, 

 from which it derives its generic name. 

 Introduced and naturalized from Great 

 Britain. 



MEADOW FOXTAIL (Alopecurus 

 tensis), Fig. 19, has an erect, smooth 

 stem, two or three feet high, with 

 swelling sheaths; spikes cylindrical, 

 obtuse, equalling the sharp cone-like 

 glumes ; awn twisted, and twice the 

 length of the blossom, Fig. 20. The 

 spike not so long as that of Timothy. 

 Flowers in May, in fields and pastures. 

 Perennial introduced. 



The meadow foxtail close- 

 ly resernbles Timothy, but 

 may be distinguished from 

 it as having one palea only. 

 The spike or head of mead- 

 ow foxtail is soft, while 

 that of Timothy is rough. 

 It flowers earlier than Tim- 

 othy, and thrives on all soils 

 except the dryest sands and 



Fig. 19. Meadow Foxtail. Fig. 20. 



