356 GRASS FAMILY. 



viz. HiEBdcHLOA. roreXus, Seneca or Hoiy-Grabs, being rare) : low. 

 slender, soft and smooth ^ the pale brown or greenish spikelets crowded in an 

 evident spike-like panicle ; each composed of a pair of thin very unequal glumes, 

 above and within these a pair of obcordato or 2-lobed hairy empty pglets, one 

 with a bent awn from near its base, the other with a shorter awn higher up ; 

 above and within these a pair of very small smooth and roundish palets, of 

 parchment-like texture, enclosing 2 stamens and the 2-styled pistil, finally in- 

 vesting the grain. IJ. 



Alopeotirus prat^nsis, Meadow Foxtail. Introduced from Europe 

 abundantly into meadows E. : flowering in spring ; stem about 2° high, bearing 

 few pale soft leaves, terminated by a cylindrical soft and dense spike, or what 

 seems to be so, for the spikelets are really borne on short side branches, not on 

 the main axis ; these spikelets very flat contrary to the glumes, which are con- 

 duplicate, united by their edges towards the base, keeled, fringed-ciliate on the 

 keel; these enclose a single conduplicate lower palet (the upper one wholly 

 wanting) which bears a long awn from below the middle of the back, and sur- 

 rounds 3 stamens and the pistil. 



» * Awn, if any, from the apex of the glumes or palets. 



1- Spikelets densdn crowded in a long perfectly cylindrical apparent spike, each spike- 

 let strictly 1 -flowered : glumes 2, keeled and nearly amduplicate, awn-puirited, 

 much larger and of firmer texture than the thin and truiicate awnless palet^. 



Phlfeum prat^nse, Cat-tail Grass, Timothy, or Herd's Grass ; 

 irtti'odnced from Eu. ; a coarse but most valuable meadow grass, S° - 4° high, 

 with green roughish spike B'rS' long; the small spikelets are crowded on very 

 ; short branches, and therefore the seeming spike is not a true one. ^ 



+- -t- Spikelets strictly spiked all on one side of a flattened jointless rhachis, much 

 crowded: the 2- 5 spikes digitate, i. e. all on the a/iex of the flowering stem: 

 pidets awnless. Finger-grass might be sought here ; see Panicum below. 



** Flower only one to each spikelel, and a mere rudiment beyond it, awnless. 



C^nodon D^tylon, Bermuda or Scutch Grass. An introduced weed 

 chiefly S.> where it is useful in sandy soil, where a better grass is not to 

 be had ; Ci-eeping extensively, the rigid creeping stem? with ^hort flattish 

 leaves and sending up flowering shoots a few inches high, bearing the 3 -.5 slender 

 spikes, y, 



** ** Flowers S -5 or more in each splkelet, the ilppermost generally imperftct . ■ 

 seed loose, proportionally large, rough-wrihUid. (T) 



Eleuslne Indica, Crab-Grabs, Yard-Grass, Dog's-tail, or Wire- 

 "Gra^s. Introduced only in yards or lawns N., more abundant S., where it is 

 valuable for cattle; low, spreading over the ground, pale; glumes and palets 

 pointless. 



Daotyloctfenium .ffigyptiacum, Egyptian Grass. Yards and fields, 

 chiefly a weed, S. : creeping over the ground, low ; spikes dense and thickish ; 

 ' gltines flattened laterally and keeled, one of them awn-pointed, the strongly 

 keeled boat-shaped lower palet also pointed. 



t- + 1- Spikelets spiked alternately on opposite sides of a zigzag jointed rhachis. 

 ** Glume only one to the solitary spikelet, which stands edgewise. 



L61ium per^nne, Darnel, Rye-Grass, or Ray Grass. Introduced 

 from Europe : a good pasture-grass, l°-2° high, with loose spike 5' -6' long, 

 of 12 or more about 7-flowered spikelets placed edgewise, so that one row of 

 flowers is next the glume, the other next the rhachis ; lower palet short-awned 

 or awnless. 



■"• Glumes a pair to the single spikelet, right and left at each joint of the rhachis. 



Triticum ripens, Couch-Grabb, Quitch or Quick-Grass, &c., belongs 

 tti tbd section with perennial roots ; this ^spreads amazingly by its ^erous 

 1671% riinning joiMtodis, is a;.pe9t in .cultivated fields, aa^_ i|. too coarse and 



