GRAMINEAE (GRASS FAMILY) 35 
Culms ten inches to two feet in length, with many branches, the 
longer ones spreading and decumbent for part of their length, the 
shorter ones erect. Sheaths very loose, slightly flattened, smooth 
but with hairy margins, the ligule conspicuously fringed; blades 
two to five inches long, smooth, usually flat but sometimes involute. 
Racemes bearing eight to twenty clusters of two to six flowers, the 
clusters subtended by ovoid or globular involucres which later 
enclose the seeds, forming hairy burs about a quarter-inch in diam- 
eter, thickly set with stiff, sharp, finely barbed prickles, which 
are strong enough to penetrate shoe leather. (Fig. 11.) 
Means of control 
Small areas about sheep-washing places should be hoe-cut, hand- 
pulled, or burned over before the burs ripen. A sandy pasture 
or meadow infested with the weed should be burned over, culti- 
vated, and fertilized before reseeding to better growths. As a 
waste-land weed, a whole neighborhood should be interested in its 
extirpation because of its habit of making any passing animal or 
person its carrier to a new field. 
RICE CUT-GRASS 
Leérsia oryzoides, Sw. 
Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds and by rootstocks. 
Time of bloom: August to September. 
Seed-time: September to October. ; : 
Range: Newfoundland to western Ontario, southward to Florida 
and Texas. . 
Habitat: Swamps, and along streams and ditches. 
A bothersome weed in open ditches, which are frequently clogged 
by the dense, tangled masses of its interlacing rootstocks. Culms 
two to|four feet long, rather stout, decumbent at base, much 
branched. Sheaths shorter than the internodes, very rough; 
blades three to ten inches long, one-fourth to nearly one-half inch 
wide, very rough, the edges capable of cutting like a knife when 
drawn through the fingers. Panicle loosely branched, lax and 
bending, five to eight inches long, the one-seeded_ spikelets ar- 
ranged in single rows on the branchlets and overlapping one an- 
