Illustrated Descriptions of the Grasses 



BERMUDA GRASS 



\, 



li-^ 



In the beauty of old mythology, when the ^' ^!' 

 white clouds were cattle driven through the 

 wide pasture of the sky, the sacred Vedas cele- 

 brated Bermuda Grass as the " Shield of India, " 

 and " Preserver of Nations," a plant sacred to 

 the Hindoos, as without it the herds would 

 perish and famine consume the people. The 

 twentieth century, with face turned traffic- ,, _ 



ward, notices Bermuda Grass merely as "the r 



most valuable forage grass of the Southern 

 States." 



A lover of heat and sunshine, this grass is 

 seldom found in the North, but from southern 

 New York State to the Gulf the short, fmger- 

 like spikes are not uncommon in dry soil where 

 the low stems rise bearing narrow leaves which 

 are crowded at the base of the stems and on 

 the prostrate runners. The blossoming spikes 

 are painted with dark purple stigmas, and Sir 

 William Jones, in his "Asiatic Researches," 

 long ago praised the extraordinary beauty of 

 the flowers. Spreading extensively over the 

 surface of the ground, the plant is tenacious of 

 life, even during the driest seasons, and is 

 highly valued as a lawn-grass in the South. 

 Seed is rarely produced north of the Gulf 

 States, but the runners often grow over rocks 

 six feet across, or down precipitous embank- 

 ments, and are most useful in holding arid 

 and shifting sands. 



Bermuda Grass. Scutch-grass. Cynodon 

 Dddylon (L.) Pers. 



Perennial, extensively creeping. Naturalized 



from Europe. Bermuda Grass 



Stem 6'-24' tall, erect. Ligule composed of soft Cynodon Daciyion 



hairs. Leaves \'-2^' long, ^"-2" wide. 

 Spikes 3-5, narrow, i'-3' long, spreading from the summit of stem. 



Spikelets i-flowered, about i" long, borne on one side of the spike. 



163 



