The Book of Grasses 



later and has a more limited range. Both of these grasses 

 have narrow leaves and are easily recognized, as the short, 

 few-flowered panicles bear but few branches and are unlike those 

 of other grasses of early summer. In Flattened Oat-grass, which 

 is especially abundant in mountain meadows and ascends the 

 highest peaks of the Appalachians, the stems are flattened and the 

 flowering scales terminate in longer and more slender points than 

 do those of Wild Oat-grass. 



Silky Oat-grass {Danthonia sericea), another early species of 

 sandy soils, is less common in the Northern States than are the other 

 two grasses. It is slightly stouter than either and is usually very 

 silky on leaves and sheaths, while the flowering scales are whitened 

 with soft hairs. 



Wild Oat-grass. Danthonia spicdia (L.) Beauv. 



Perennial. 



Stem 1-2I ft. tall, slender, erect. Lower sheaths often downy. 

 Ligule very short. Leaves 4'-6' long, i" wide or less, often involute. 



Panicle i'-2j' long, branches few. Spikelets 5-8-flowered, 4"-5" long, 

 green, few. Outer scales long and narrow, smooth, usually extending 

 beyond the uppermost flower; flowering scales broad, 2-toothed, 

 downy, bearing from between the teeth a bent and twisted, spreading 

 awn about 4" long. Awn purple in the twist, green above. Stamens 3. 



Dry and rocky soil. May to August. 



Newfoundland to Dakota, south to Florida and Texas. 



THE SPARTINAS 



FOX-GRASS, CREEK SEDGE, CORD-GRASS, AND SALT REED-GRASS 



" By a world of marsh that borders a world of sea." 



Spartinas are lovers of strong salt breezes, and with Marram 

 Grass and Bitter Panic-grass are characteristic plants of sea sands 

 and salt marshes. With long rootstocks, sharp-tipped with scaly 

 points, the grasses of this genus grow to the water's edge, and with- 

 stand the daily flooding of the tides. Pull up a portion of the 

 strong rootstock from some large Spartina and the growing point 

 is sharp as any needle. These subterranean stems, pushing their 

 way in endless, interlacing network through the sands and creek 

 mud, aid in firmly binding the unstable shores. 



Fox-grass, the earliest, and by far the most slender of the com- 

 mon species, blooms through July and August and covers large 



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