BEEMITDA GRASS. — EGYPTIAN GRASS. 63 



Short-leaved Beard Grass {Gymnopogon brevifolius). 



— Spikes on long, stalks, flower-bearing only above the 

 middle ; lower palea short-awned ; glumes pointed. 

 Pound in Delaware and southward. 



20. Cynodon. Bermuda Grass. 



Spikelets one-flowered, spikes usually digitate at the 

 naked summit of the flowering stalks ; glumes keeled, 

 pointless ; palese pointless and awnless, the lower and 

 longer boat-shaped. Stamens three. Creeping peren- 

 nials. 



Bermuda Grass, Scutch Grass {Gynodon dactylon). 



— Glumes very nearly equal ; spikes four to five ; 

 pales smooth; stems smooth, hollow, prostrate at the 

 base, with four or five leaves, flat or folded, acute, 

 rigid, hairy, rough at the edges ; lower joints covered 

 by the sheaths ; inflorescence digitate, purplish ; sta- 

 mens three ; stigmas feathery. Penn. and southward. 



This grass is distinguished from Digitaria in the spike- 

 lets, which are laterally compressed, and in rising singly 

 from the rachis, and by wanting the ligule. In Digitaria 

 the spikelets rise from the rachis in twos or threes, and 

 the ligule is very distinct. 



It grows abundantly on the West India Islands, and 

 in the southern part of the United States, where it is 

 esteemed as a very valuable grass. 



21. Dacttloctenium. Egyptian Grass. 



Spikelets several-flowered, crowded on one side of 

 the flattened rachis, forming two to five close, comb- 

 like spikes, .digitate at the apex ; glumes compressed and 

 keeled, the upper one awned ; stamens three. 



Egyptian Grass (Dactyloctenium ^gyptiacum), the 

 only species referred to this genus, is found in culti- 

 vated fields and yards in Virginia and southward. 

 Stems diffuse, often creeping at the base ; spikes four 



