Illustrated Descriptions of the Grasses 



Eragrostis, like a reddish purple mist, often cover the ground, 

 and although October frosts fade the flowering-heads to a pale 

 straw-colour, they are ^si--v^^y, \^i 

 still noticeable during ■'^-i^^^^^^^ i'' 



autumn, when, as one 

 of the tumbleweeds of 

 the East, they are carried 

 by the wind and piled in 

 huge drifts against way- 

 side fences. 



In similar locations 

 the panicles of Lace-grass 

 {Eragrostis capilldris) in 

 green and purple are some- 

 times mistaken for those of 

 the larger species but should be dis- 

 tinguished by the shorter, few-flowered 

 spikelets, and by the absence of hairs 

 surrounding the base of the branches. In 

 both these grasses the widely spreading 

 panicle is usually much longer than the 

 stem which supports it, and the hair-like 

 pedicels are as long or longer than their 

 spikelets. 



Tufted Eragrostis {Eragrostis pilosa) is 

 a slender annual which is found by way- 

 sides and on sandy river banks. The leaves 

 are very narrow, and the green or purple 

 panicles are shorter and narrower than in 

 the two species mentioned above. 



The ornamental grasses of old-time 

 gardens are called to mind as the Strong- 

 scented Eragrostis opens its showy panicles, 

 though surely this plant never found a place 

 by beds of lavender and rosemary, for it 

 emits a most offensive odour, which hap- 

 pily is not possessed by other grasses of the 

 Eastern States. The panicles are not long, 

 being rarely more than six inches in length, 

 but they are closely flowered with large, 



179 



Strong-scented Eragrostis 

 Eragrostis megastachya 



