14 



soft hairy, the margin of the leaves rough, the blade of the leaf 6 

 to 8 inches long, and one-half to 1 inch wide, the upper leaves 

 reaching to the base of the panicle, or nearly so ; the panicle is 6 to 

 8 inches long, strict or close, the branches alternate, erect, simple, 3 

 to 4 inches long, with somewhat scattered sessile spikelets. The 

 branches of the panicle are rough, the pedicels with scattered hairs, 

 especially near the flowers; the spikelets are oblong, somewhat 

 pointed, 2 to 2£ lines long, sparsely hairy ; the lower glume is half 

 or two-thirds the length of the upper one, acute, five-nerved, the 

 lateral nerves uniting with the mid-nerve below the apex, the upper 

 empty glume prominently five to seven nerved, pointed ; the flower- 

 ing glume of the sterile flower is five to seven nerved, its palet thin 

 and transparent, as long as the glume, the perfect flower, ovate or 

 oblong-ovate, acutish, transversely wrinkled with fine reticulated 

 lines. 



It is a grass of rapid, vigorons growth, many stalks proceeding 

 from the same root, growing very close and thick at the base, succu- 

 lent, and yielding a large amount of forage. 



Mr. Pryor Lea, of (xoliad, Tex., has had it in cultivation a num- 

 ber of years, and states as follows : 



I consider it far superior to any grass that I ever saw for hay. It is a much more 

 certain crop than millet, and cultivated with less labor, and all kinds of stock pre- 

 fer it. In this region it is regarded, in the condition of well-cured hay, as more 

 nutritious than any other grass. It grows only in cultivated ground ; it prospers 

 best in the warmest season of the year ; its luxurious growth subdues other grasses 

 and some weeds, with the result of leaving the ground in an ameliorated condition. 



Mr. H. "W. Eavenel, of Aiken, S. C, says he has been cultivating 

 Panicum Texanum for several years. It is hardy and naturalized 

 there, freely seeding and propagating itself, coining up in his grounds 

 with other grasses, and much larger and better than any of them for 

 hay and forage. 



The experiments of Professor Phares and others, in Mississippi, - 

 substantially confirm the statements of Mr. Lea, although it is said 

 that it will hardly hold its own against the common crab grass, 

 {Digitama sanguhiale.) It has been called concho grass in some 

 parts; in others Colorado bottom grass. It is stated that on the 

 Colorado bottoms, in Texas, many of the farmers have devoted 

 their farms entirely to its production, finding it more profitable than 

 corn or cotton. It is cut twice and sometimes three times in a 

 ye&r, yielding about one and a half tons per acre at each cutting. 



