GRAMINEAE (GRASS FAMILY) 53 
seed to infest the soil, and one or two seasons of careful work 
should conquer it. 
GOOSE-GRASS 
Eleusine indica, Gaertn. 
Other English names: Yard-grass, Crab-grass, Wire-grass, Crow-foot 
Grass. Indian Hleusine. 
Introduced. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: June to September. 
Seed-time: July to October. 
Range: In nearly all parts of North America except the far North. 
Habitat: Farmyards, roadsides, and waste places; often trouble- 
some in lawns. 
A coarse grass that came to us from 
India and behaves as though domesticated. 
It grows from clustered, fibrous roots, the 
culms six inches to two feet long, flattened, 
decumbent at base, from which there are 
usually several branches. Sheaths loose, 
overlapping, compressed, smooth but hairy 
at the throat; ligule very short and mi- 
nutely toothed, blades three inches to a 
foot long, often crowded at the base of 
the culm, rather thick, pale green. Spikes 
two to ten, digitate at the end of the stalk 
or one or two below near the top, one to 
three inches. long; spikelets appressed, 
three- to five-flowered; glumes unequal, 
rough-keeled. Seeds black and wrinkled. 
(Fig. 24.) 
Means of control 
In yards and waste places the grass 
should be hoe-cut or hand-pulled before 
it develops seeds. In lawns, a few drops 
of crude carbolic acid squirted into the 
heart of a tuft with a common machine 
oil-can will kill it, without defacing 
i) 
the smoothness of the sward as a hoe pig, 24. — Goose-grass 
would do. 
(Eleusine indica). X 4. 
