29 



which is gracefully drooping at the top. The spikelets are at the- 

 ends of the slender branches of the loose panicle, generally of a 

 yellowish color. At the base of each spikelet are two (one on each 

 side) short, feathery pedicels ; the flowers which they are supposed 

 to have been made to support have entirely disappeared. The outer 

 glumes are about three lines long, both alike lanceolate, obtusish,. 

 coriaceous, five to seven nerved, the lower one sparsely hairy, and 

 with hairs at the base and on the stalk below. 



3. C. secundum, Benth. (Sorghum secundum, Chap.) Florida. 



4. C. Wrightii, Munro. (Sorghum pauciflorum, Chap.) Florida. 



Soeghdm, Pers. 



Spikelets much as in Vfirysopogon, differing chiefly in habit and 

 in the glumes of the fertile spikelets becoming more hardened after 

 flowering. 



1. S. halepense, Linn. Introduced and sparingly naturalized. John- 

 sou grass. Means' grass 



This grass has been often called Guinea grass, but that name prop- 

 erly belongs to a quite different plant, Paniemn jumentorum, of which, 

 see an account elsewhere. The underground root-stocks are some- 

 times half an inch thick, very succulent, and are eagerly sought for 

 and eaten by hogs. The grass spreads and is readily' propagated from 

 these root-stocks, every joint being capable of developing a new 

 shoot. Mr. N. B. Moore, of Augusta, Ga., has cultivated this grass- 

 for over forty years, and prefers it to all others. He says it is 

 perennial, as nutritious as any other, when once set is difficult to- 

 eradicate, will grow on ordinary land, and yields abundantly. 



Many farmers and planters especially object to this grass hecause 

 of the difficulty of eradicating it. But Mr. Hubert Post says it is 

 not as hard to get rid of as many suppose. He says that one of his 

 neighbors, in 1878, broke up some 15 acres, which he has since suc- 

 cessfully planted in cotton with no trouble from the grass. He also 

 says that in this Johnson grass a kind Providence has given the South 

 a mine of wealth, which could easily be made a foundation for wealth 

 and prosperity such as the South has never seen. The history of the 

 grass in this country is said to be as follows : 



Governor Means, of South Carolina, obtained some of the seed 

 from Turkey as early as 1835. He planted it on his plantation,. 

 where it is still called Means grass. la 1840- or 1845 William. 



