IX 



TWO PROMINENT SOUTHERN GRASSES 



BERMUDA GRASS {Cynodon dactylon) 



'T* HIS grass, known in the Southern States as Ber- 

 "• I muda (universally pronounced ' ' Bermooda " ) , 



Kil in India as " doob," and in the British West 

 Indies as "scutch-grass" (Fig. 24), is dis- 

 tributed throughout tropical and subtropical regions 

 of both hemispheres. It is the great pasture-grass of 

 subtropical and warm temperate regions throughout 

 the world. (The localities where Bermuda grass is im- 

 portant are indicated in Fig. 25.) 



So far as known, the following incident was the first 

 introdudlion of this grass into the United States. Mr. 

 James A. Bethune, of Washington, D. C. , states that 

 during the war of 181 2 Mr. John G. Winter, a mer- 

 chant of Greensboro, Georgia, compelled by the block- 

 ade of the Atlantic seaports to bring his merchandise 

 in through St. Mary's, on the Georgia-Florida line, on 

 one occasion threw into the street in front of his store 

 some grass in which a shipment of crockery had been 

 packed. The late Gen. James N. Bethune, then a lad 

 of nine or ten years of age, living in Greensboro, 

 picked up a sprig of the curious-looking grass and car- 

 ried it to his mother. Good grasses being much 

 needed in that sedlion at that time, the sprig was care- 



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