30 



Johnson, of Alabama, obtained some of the seed and sowed it upon 

 his farm, whence it derived the name of Johnson grass. It is said 

 to have been introduced into California from Australia, and has there 

 been cultivated under the name of evergreen millet. It has been 

 tried in Kansas with very promising results. A farmer there ob- 

 tained some seed from his brother in California, who had cultivated 

 it successfully on a very dry soil on an upland farm. This farmer 

 finds it to be in Kansas perfectly hardy, rapid in growth, affording 

 three cuttings in one season, and producing a heavy growth of after- 

 math for fall grazing. Horses and cattle .are fond of it, both in its 

 dry and green condition. Probably no grass gives better promise 

 for the dry, arid lands of the West. In Utah it has been cultivated 

 under the name of Arabian millet grass. 



Phalakis, Linn. 



Spikelets one-flowered, compressed, densely crowded in an ovoid 

 or cylindrical spike, or on the short, densely-flowered branches of a 

 panicle. The outer glumes are acute, boat-shaped, keeled, three- 

 nerved, the keel in some species bordered by a scarious wing; 

 within these is the flower, consisting of two glumes, sometimes 

 called palets, which are thicker than the outer ones, becoming shin- 

 ing and coriaceous, obscurely nerved, compressed, enclosing the 

 stamens and style. Below the flower are one or two small bristles, 

 which are considered abortive glumes. There is no ordinary two- 

 nerved palet. 



1. P. arundinacea, Linn. Heed Canary. New England to Vir- 



ginia, and westward to the Pacific coast. 



A perennial grass, with strong creeping rhizomas, growing from 

 2 to 5 feet high, usually in low or wet ground. It ranges from 

 New England and New York westward to Oregon, and northward 

 to Canada, also in the mountainous parts of Pennsylvania and Vir- 

 ginia. It is common, also, in the north of Europe. The culm is 

 stout, smooth, and leafy ; the leaves are mostly from 6 to 10 inches 

 long and about half an inch wide, the upper ones shorter. 



The well-known ribbon grass of the garden is a variety of this 

 grass, and will, it is said, easily revert to the normal type. In 

 mountainous regions it may be worth trial for meadows. 



2. P. amethystina, T-rin. California and Oregon. 



3. P. Canariensis, Linn. Canary grass. Introduced. 



