166 BULLETIN 772, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Perennial low grasses with creeping rhizomes, short, pungently 
pointed blades, and terminal spikelike racemes, the spikelets on short 
appressed pedicels. Species about five, southeastern Asia to New 
Zealand. 
Type species: Agrostis matrella L. 
Osterdamia Neck., Elem. Bot. 3: 218. 1790. In a note appended to the para- 
graph on Agrostis, Necker states, “Agrostis matrella Lin. species distincta, 
agrostidis proxima, quam osterdamiam appellamus, char- 
actere sequenti.” Although Osterdamia, Agrostis, Milium, and 
many other groups are called by Necker species of his genus 
Achyrophyton, these so-called species are the equivalent of 
the genera of his contemporaries and are usually so recog- 
nized by botanical writers. 
Zoysia Willd., Ges. Naturf. Freund. Berlin, Neue Schrift. 3: 
440. 1801. Type and only species, Z. pungens Willd. 
Matrella Pers., Syn. Pl. 1: 73. 1805. Type species, Agrostis 
juncea Lam., the only species described. 
Several years ago a species 
of this genus was introduced 
into the United States as a 
lawn grass under the names 
Korean lawn grass and Jap- 
anese lawn grass. It was 
recommended for the South- 
“ern States and was said to be 
hardy as far north as Connecti- 
cut.1 The species then intro- 
Fig. 96.—Nazia aliena. Plant, X 3; group of spikelets (spike) and single spikelet, x 5. 
duced appears to be Osterdamia japonica (Steud.) Hitche. (Zoysia 
japonica Steud.). WRecently a fine-leaved species, Osterdamia tenui-_ 
folia (Willd.) Kuntze, has been introduced into Florida and has 
given favorable results. The original species, O. matrella (L.) 
Kuntze (fig. 97), manila grass, is common in the Philippine Islands. 
1 Scribner, U. S. Dept. Agr., Div. Agrost, Bull. 8: 95. 1896. 
