30 



MEADOW FOXTAIL. 



Annual ; flowers in August. Grows from six to ten feet 

 high in shallow water. Ohio, Wisconsin, and the South. 



3. Alopecurus. 



Foxtail Grasses. 



Fijj. 10. Meadow Foxtail. 



Spikelets one-flowered ; glumes boat- 

 shaped, compressed and keeled, nearly 

 equal, united at the base ; lower palea 

 awned on the back below the mid- 

 dle, upper palea wanting ; stamens 

 three ; styles mostly united ; stigmas 

 long and feathered; leaves smooth and 

 flat. Panicle contracted into a cj'lin- 

 drical, soft spike, like the tail of a fox, 

 from which it derives its generic name. 

 Introduced and naturalized from Great 

 Britain. 



Meadow Foxtail {Alopecurus pra^ 

 tensis), Pig. 19, has an erect, smooth 

 stem, two or three feet' high, with 

 swelling sheaths ; spikes cylindrical, 

 obtuse, equalling the sharp cone-like 

 glumes ; awn twisted, and twice the 

 length of the blossom. Pig. 20. The 

 spike not so long as that of Timothy. 

 Plowers in Maj', in fields and pastures. 

 Perennial — introduced. 



The meadow foxtail close- 

 ly resembles Timothj-, but 

 may be distinguished from 

 it as having one palea only. 

 The spike or head of mead- 

 ow foxtail is soft, while 

 that of Timothy is rough. 

 It flowers earlier than Tim- 

 othy, and thrives on all soils 

 except the dryest sands and 



Fig. -/U. 



