94 



THE GENERA AND THEIR SPECIES. 



prominently tufted, fan-shaped, attaining twenty inches in depth. 

 Stem erect, stout, hard. Leaves thick, broad, fiat, shoot flat, 

 folded in bud, tapering at outer end, keel prominent, ribless, 

 without median lines, edges rough, shining below, apex acute, 

 bluish green. Sheaths flat, rough downwards with acute edges, 

 almost entire ; ligule obtuse, torn, white, longer than broad. 

 Panicle short, erect, spreading horizontally below when in flower, 

 close, pointed above, alternately branched, branches tubercled 

 at base ; rachis rough. Spikelets ovoid, compressed, densely- 

 clustered ; florets three to five. Glumes unequal, shorter than 

 florets, lanceolate. Keels hairy above and ending in a point. 

 Outer palea long, toothed at apex, five-ribbed, keel hairy, awn 

 curved ; inner palea membranous, fringed at base, bifid at apex. 



This is another of our native 

 grasses disregarded by our farmers 

 until the seed was exported here 

 from America, in this case Virginia. 

 It thrives best in moist places, even 

 under trees where it suffers no damage 

 from the shade or drippings, though 

 it cannot stand shrubs. A coarse 

 and hardy grass with a tall strong 

 stem, growing in dense tufts, it is 

 thus most nutritious in its youth, and 

 gives better pasture than it does hay. 

 Sturdy and healthy it is found every- 

 where, though noticeably dwarfish on 

 limy land. In thin soils the fibrous roots have not hold enough 

 to prevent them being drawn out of the ground by the cattle, 

 to whom the plentiful foliage affords such an excellent grip ; 

 and it also suffers by being trodden on, especially in dry weather. 

 Sinclair found that the yellowish fusiform seeds weighed 21 

 pounds to the bushel of 9,517,860 of them. It is the only repre- 

 sentative of its genus. Its name of orchard-grass is due to its 

 doing so well under trees, and its generic name, Daclylis, comes 

 from the rounded, finger-tip shape of its inflorescence which 

 is most apparent in woodland specimens.* 



Dactylis glomerata. 

 Spikelet. For Floret see p. 55- 



