GRASS FAMILY, 407 
ated grounds, or about houses. It ought to be most carefully and 
athe extirpated, on its first appearance in any agricultural region. 
31. TRIP’SACUM, L. Gama Grass. 
(Greek, tribo, to rub ; perhaps in allusion to its polished fertile spikes.]} 
Spikelets. monecious, in termi — and subterminal jointed — eho 
are solitary, or often oe te in twos 0 r threes, stam 
Jertile below. STamInaTE sp acre in pazrs on a tangle bape 
longer than the joint, collateral, 2-flowered 
outer one nerved, the inner one GOK sen ty ple ver Abia! Sema site ae 
i ay ga awnless : omens 3; anthers orang oer by 2 
TILLATE 'SPIKELETS single Bowe eA ce 
: k-pur’ ~_ Grain ovoid, poly 
Perennials with cmanucee tall branche we which are hard, smooth 
and solid ; leaves very long, sublinear, acuminate ; spi ating at 
the articulations spontaneously, at maturity. 
1, T. dactyloi’des, L. Spikes usually 2- < cpecaed o r digitate 
sometimes solitary,—the upper half staminate, the lower pistillate. 
Fincer-Lixe Tripsacum. Gama Grass. Sesame Grass. 
Culms 3 or 4-6 feet high, pare and glabrous, solid with pith,—the internodes oe 
oe on alternate s aed smooth, with a dark-brown contracted ring at 
she —4 feet here, hist onthe x inch fo an inch OF more in : 
weak Jance-tinear keeled, heres beneath Pee crn ish on the wpper a 
—— gin, contracted and sparingly pilose at , glabrous ; ligule 
aa ciliate. Spikes 4— Sor 8 inches ae not not untseqneney single ; 
— 
when fe 
the | pistillage portion: of the spike is terete, when irs, semi-terete as if split down,— 
and when va od he spikes are somewhat trique Caryopsis avoid, smooth ~the 
Bram Z 
oe meadows, banks of streams, &c,: Middle and Western States. Fl, July, Pre: 
‘ptember. 
Obs. This ¢ and remarkak 
valley of the Mississippi. "enie! poet begga etugens 2 he 
few i correspondents of ae ie Journals, as an mod 
of fodder for stock; but I Sapbutlss aot much of it, latterly. The 
leaves and young culms —where 
ter e 
hard stems of the full- mn or mature pany may 00m soon satisfy hi 
that it can never su Bs legac oh eed a, 2 : 
8] peer sy re Wh Indian-corn fodder. 
ae: 
