Illustrated Descriptions of the Grasses 



tapering leaves, rises in striking contrast to the lower growth. 

 This grass, which is found from southern New England to the Gulf, 

 blooms in August and September, with the 

 Purple Eragrostis, at a season when the 

 sunshine brings from the earth the warm 

 odour of pennyroyal and other mints that 

 are common on dry hillsides, and that seem 

 to have absorbed the summer's heat to 

 give it out again in fragrance. The flower- 

 ing-head of Tall Red-top, which is some- 

 what sticky to the touch in the axis of the 

 panicle and below, is often more than a 

 foot long and nearly as wide, and as the 

 slender, rather rigid branches spread 

 widely the panicles are very beautiful 

 when the shining purple spikelets open. 



Tall Red-Top. Tridens fldvus (L.) 

 Hitchc. 



Perennial. 

 Stem 3-6 ft. tall, erect. Sheaths hairy at the 



summit. Leaves long, tapering, flat or some- 

 times involute. 

 Panicle 8'-2o' long, branches spreading, lower 



branches 3'-8' long. Panicle sticky in axis 



and below. Spikelets purple, 4-8-flowered, 



3"-4" long. Outer scales unequal, keeled, 



abruptly pointed; flowering scales 3-nerved, 



slightly 3-toothed, nerves silky below. 



Stamens 3. 

 Dry fields. July to September. 

 Southern New England to Missouri, and south- 

 ward. 



SAND-GRASS 



Sand-grass, thick and rigid of leaf, is 

 a tufted plant of the beaches, and, like 

 a few other salt-water grasses of the 

 Atlantic coast, it is also found on Western 

 ranges. It is very different in appearance 

 from such species as Marram Grass, Bitter 

 Panic-grass, and Creek Sedge, which also 



171 



!>''— 's 



Sand-grass 

 Triplasis purpurea 



