GRAMINEAE (GRASS FAMILY) 41 
one-seeded, the glumes exceedingly narrow and tipped with long 
brigtles, the lemma with an acute callus; awn four to eight 
inches long, rough-hairy and twisted in the lower part, extremely 
slendef, flexible, and thread-like; not harmful when caught in the 
coats of animals but very objectionable in hay. 
Means of control the same as for the preceding species. 
POVERTY-GRASS 
Aristida dichétoma, Michx. 
Other English name: Three-awned 
Wire-grass. 
Native. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: August to October. 
Seed-time: September to November. 
Range: Maine to Ontario, southward 
to Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and 
Florida. 
Habitat: Dry upland meadows, pas- 
tures, and waste places. 
Sterile, sandy, or gravelly soils seem 
to be preferred by this wiry grass. 
Stems tufted, six inches to two feet 
tall, erect, very slender, and usually 
forking at every joint. Sheaths short, 
loose, and smooth, with hairy ligules ; 
the blades are one to three inches long, 
scarcely a tenth of an inch wide, with 
rough surface and edges involute. 
Panicles very slender, two to five 
inches long, the lateral ones often en- 
closed in the sheaths; spikelets hardly 
a quarter-inch long, the glumes sharp- 
pointed, not quite equal; the lemma 
hard, convolute, closely enfolding the 
seed with the palea, and terminated with 
three awns, of which the lateral ones are 
short but the central oneis about as long 
as the lemma and is held horizontally 
with a twist at the base. (Fig. 16.) 
Fic. 16. — Poverty-grass (Aris- 
tida dichotoma). X 34. 
