DACTYLIS. 



249 



each branch with a tubercle at the base ; spikelets flattened, 

 ovate, three- to five-flowered, crowded in dense clusters, and 

 placed on very short footstalks, several at the end of each 

 branch ; outer glumes unequal, lanceolate, strongly keeled, 

 the keels very hairy on the upper half, and ending in an 

 awn-like point ; flowering glume long, closely resembling 

 the outer ones, the point longer, five-ribbed ; palea mem- 

 branaceous, fringed at the edge, bifid at the summit. 



This grass is very common not only in pastures and 

 meadows but in orchards, waste places, and by road- 

 sides. It was originally in- 

 troduced into England from 

 Virginia by the Society of 

 Arts. It has become tho- 

 roughly naturalized, for it 

 pervades grass-land through- 

 out the kingdom, flowering 

 during the whole summer. 

 It thrives the best in damp 

 situations, but it does not 

 reject dry ones, nor even 

 seem much injured by the 

 droppings of trees and their 

 constant shade. It is a 

 coarse, hardy grass, growing 

 in dense tufts, and easily re- 

 cognized by its tall strong 

 stem and oddly branched 

 panicle, the long horizontal branch at its base having a 

 fanciful resemblance to the solitary claw on the cock's 

 foot. 



As an agricultural grass it possesses very high quali- 

 ties, but requires careful treatment. Both the leaves 



