150 



Flowering glume broader, boat-shaped, with, a prominent keel. 

 Palea narrow or rather broad, the two nerves prominent, distant or 

 closely contiguous. 



Grain smooth, enclosed in the glume and palea, but free from them. 



1. Cynodon dactylon, Pers. 



Botanical name. — Cynodon — Greek, Kuon, hunos a dog, odous, 

 odontos a tooth, dog's tooth. This grass is still known in some places 

 as (t Dog's Tooth Grass," but whether the vernacular name is a trans- 

 lation of the botanical one, or the reverse is the case, I do not know. 

 Dactylon — Greek, dactulos a finger, in reference to the finger-like 

 spikes. 



Vernacular names. — " Couch Grass," the " Doub Grass" of India, 

 and the " Bermuda Grass " of the United States ; sometimes known as 

 " Dog's Tooth Grass." 



Where figured. — Hackel, Vasey, Kearney, Agricultural Gazette. 



Botanical description (B. Fl., vii, 609). 



Stems prostrate, often creeping and rooting to a great extent, the flowering branches 



shortly ascending. 

 Leaves short, of a glaucous green. 

 Spikes two to five, often purplish, 1 to 2 inches long. 



Spihelets sessile, outer glumes narrow, acute, persistent, keeled, under 1 line long. 

 Flowering glume rather above 1 line long, broadly boat-shaped, the keel usually 



minutely ciliate. 

 Palea narrow. 

 Rhachis of the spikelet produced into a point or bristle shorter than the glume, and 



often very minute. 



Var. pulchellus, F.v.M. Flowering glume ciliate on the keel with 

 long hairs. Murray River. 



Value as a fodder. — It is a useful pasture grass, stock eating it 

 readily. It .is the best all-round lawn grass we have, but it is a 

 troublesome weed in gardens. It is so widely diffused and so largely 

 cultivated that the fact that it is an Australian native is sometimes lost 

 sight of. At the same time, in many of its situations it has been 

 introduced by the hand of man. As O'Shanesy points out: " Its 

 presence is one of the surest signs of settlement." 



" It is by far the most useful of all fodder grasses in India, especially 

 for horses. It is perennial, and flowers nearly all the year round. The 

 foliage becomes scanty during the cold weather months, at which time 

 it may be said to be at rest. It varies considerably in habit as well as 

 in its nutritive qualities, according to the nature of the soil or climate. 

 It makes excellent hay, and will keep good for many years in stack." 

 (Duthie.) The Hindoos consider it sacred. 



" This is undoubtedly, on the whole, the most valuable grass in the 

 Southern United States. It is a native of Southern Europe, and of 

 all tropical countries. It is a common pasture-grass in the West 

 Indies, and the Sandwich Islands, and has long been known in 

 the United States, but the difficulty of eradicating it when once 

 established has retarded its introduction into cultivation. Its 

 value, however, is becoming more appreciated now that more attention 



