The Book of Grasses 



from America. The English name of Cock's-foot Grass is derived 

 from a fancied resemblance between the branching panicle and 

 a bird's foot. 



Orchard Grass. Cock's-foot Grass. Dadylis 



glomerdta E. 



Perennial, tufted. Naturalized from Europe. 



Stem 2-5 ft. tall, coarse, erect. Ligule i"-3" long. 

 Leaves 4'-i4' long, rough, flat or slightly keeled. 



Panicle ^'-g' long, branches coarse, rough, widely 

 spreading in flower. Spikelets 3-5-flowered, 3"-4'' 

 long, green or purple, in dense i -sided clusters at 

 the ends of the branches. Outer scales unequal, 

 keeled, sharply pointed; flowering scales awn- 

 pointed, rough. Stamens 3, anthers yellow, terra- 

 cotta, pink, or purple. 



Fields, waysides, and dooryards. May to July. 



New Brunswick to Manitoba, south to South Carolina, 

 Kansas, and Colorado. 



CRESTED DOG'S-TAIL 



The rough, narrow, spike-like panicles of 

 Crested Dog's-tail are seldom found save in waste 

 places and by waysides, since this grass, as )'et, 

 has hardly become naturalized in America. It 

 is a slender species and differs from our common 

 grasses in that it bears both sterile and perfect 

 spikelets which are arranged in clusters. In the 

 perfect ilowers the scales are much broader than 

 are the rough scales of the sterile spikelets. 



As the roots of the Crested Dog's-tail penetrate 

 deeply into the earth the leaves remain fresh and 

 green when other grasses are partially withered, 

 and Sinclair, who carried on extensive researches 

 in the study of English grasses, found this species 

 to yield a large part of the herbage of the most 

 celebrated pastures he examined in that countr\'. 



The grass blooms in midsummer, and so fine and 

 strong are the slender stems that in foreign coun- 

 tries, when material for straw-plaiting is gathered, 

 taller grasses are passed by for this, which is said 

 to be much used in the making of Leghorn hats. 

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