222 



NATIVE FOKAGE PLANTS 



most by the number of individuals, nutritious qualities and 

 tenacity of life, amongst the whole of the grazing herbage. 

 They are perennials, with thick, strong, running roots, often 

 making a dense matting. Wherever ttiey take hold other 

 plants disappear. The blue grass is specifically known to 

 the farmer, and he recognizes it amongst other wild- 

 growing species. The manifold other species waving their 

 culms in the breeze or creeping along the ground, he is ac- 

 customed to speak of as wild grasses, and to pass over them 

 without any especial care or notice. Should he once be able 

 to discriminate those superficially resembling forms, he 

 would certainly pass a very different judgment about the 

 relative importance of the blue grass and the other na- 

 tive species. Blue grass and Paspalum are frequently 

 intermixed, but the latter succeeds the 

 former by four to five weeks, and comes in 

 full force after the former has long 

 perished away. Of the twelve species 

 known to exist in the Southern States, 

 seven have been found in this State. 



They are vigorous growing, succulent 

 grasses, with heavy culms, large and 

 smooth seed grains, with a smooth and 

 thin epidermis. They must surely be very 

 nutritious, and their habit under cultiva- 

 tion ought to be studied. 



Inflo escence Paspalum laeve (1); a closed spikelet magnified (2); the 

 same with'the parts displayed (3). 



PASPALUM PLUITANS, Poir.~( Floating Paspalum). 



Annual; growing in swampy places along Cumberland 

 river. Its appearance differs from the rest of the genus, 

 from the arrangement of the spikes in a simple raceme. It 

 is rare, and for that reason of no importance. 

 PASPALUM LAEVE, M.ichx.~(Smoolh Paspalum). 



Perennial ; flowers in AugUBt. Inhabiting open, grassy, moist places. 

 Culms upright, 1-3 feet high ; the pretty large and long leaves, with 



