GRAMINEAE (GRASS FAMILY) 47 
self-sown as it ripens, the spikelets dropping entire from the axis. 
(Fig. 20.) 
Means of control 
Cultivate and fertilize the ground, furnishing humus in order to 
enable it to retain moisture and support forage of a profitable 
quality. 
SMALL RUSH-GRASS 
Spordbolus negléctus, Nash. 
Native. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: July to August. 
Seed-time: August to September. 
Hange: New Brunswick to the Dakotas, southward to Virginia and 
‘exas. 
Habitat: Sterile and sandy fields; waste places. 
Similar to the preceding species, but even smaller and more 
worthless. Culms tufted, six inches to a foot in height, usually 
decumbent to the first joint and then erect, smooth, often much 
branched. Sheaths much inflated, rather more than half the 
length of the internodes; leaves only about one line wide, smooth 
below, rough at base above, with very attenuate point. Panicles 
very slender and almost completely enclosed and hidden in the 
sheaths, even the terminal one partly so. Spikelet about a tenth 
of an inch long, the glumes, lemma, and palea all nearly equal, 
smooth, acute, thin in texture, white and shining; sowing itself 
when ripe by dropping entire to the ground. 
Means of control the same as for the preceding plant. 
SMUT-GRASS 
Spordbolus indicus, R. Br. 
Other English names: Indian Rush Grass, Indian Drop-seed. 
Introduced. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: July to September. 
Seed-time: August to October. . 
Range: Virginia to Arkansas, southward to the Gulf of Mexico. 
Habitat: Fields, meadows, and waste places. 
This grass came from the tropics and is common in all the warmer 
regions of the world. It is good forage only when very young, the 
