76 



from Pennsylvania and Illinois southward. Mr. Charles Mohr, 

 Mobile, Ala., says of this grass : 



A fine vernal grass, with a rich foliage, blooming early in May ; 2 to 3 feet high ; 

 frequent in damp, sandy loam, forming large tufts. This perennial grass is cer- 

 tainly valuable, affording an abundant range early in the season ; if cultivated it 

 would yield large crops ready for cutting from the 1st of May. It is called by some 

 •wild fescue or oat grass. It is not found near the coast, consequently I had no 

 chance to observe its growth during the latter part of the summer and in the winter 

 ■season, and therefore am not able to judge of its value as a pasture grass. 



3. U. nitida, Bald. Georgia to Texas. 



4. U. paniculata, Linn. Sea Oats, near the coast, Virginia to 



Florida. 



A tall, coarse grass, with a dense heavy panicle. In Florida and 

 on the Gulf coast it sometimes grows from 10 to 12 feet high, and 

 is called Sea-oats. 



Distichlis, Haf. 



Spikelets dioecious, many-flowered, compressed, crowded in a dense 

 spicate or capitate, or rather open panicle; outer glumes herbaceous, 

 narrow, keeled, acute, shorter than the flowers ; flowering glumes 

 rigidly membranaceous or subcoriaceous, keeled, many-nerved, acute ; 

 palet complicate, two-keeled, the keels narrowly winged. The pis- 

 tillate flowers are more rigid than the staminate, styles long with 

 stigmas exserted from the top of the palet. 



1. D. maritima Haf (Brizopyrum spicatum, Hook.). Sea-shore and 

 . interior saline grounds. Salt grass. Alkaline grass. 



This is described in most botanical works as Brizopyrum spica- 

 tum, lint recently the name given by itafinesque has been accepted 

 and restored to it by Mr. Bentham. It is a perennial grass, growing 

 in marshes near the sea-coast on both sides of the continent, and also 

 abundantly in alkaline soil throughout the arid districts of the Rocky 

 Mountains. It has strong, creeping root-stocks, covered with imbri- 

 cated leaf-sheath, sending up culms from 6 to 18 inches high, which 

 are clothed nearly to the top with the numerous, sometimes crowded, 

 two-ranked leaves. The leaves are generally rigid and involute, 

 sharp-pointed, varying greatly in length on different specimens. The 

 plants are dioecious, some being entirely male and some female. The 

 panicle is generally short and spike-like, sometimes, especially in the 

 males, rather loose, with longer, erect branches, and sometimes re- 

 duced to a few spikelets. The spikelets are from four to six lines 



