No. 5. 



SETARIA CAUDATA R. & S. 



Plant annual. 



Rootstock none. Roots slender. 



( 'vims 2 to 2^ feet high, branching from the base, scabrous or nearly glabrous; 

 nodes provided with a ring of silky appressed hairs; "branches usually short and 

 sterile. 



Leaves of the stem 4 or 5; sheaths usually distant, glabrous, ciliate on the 

 margins, villous at the apex; blade 1 to 3 lines broad, usually 5 to 9 inches long. 

 flat, glabrous beneath, scabrous above; ligule about 1 line long, cut nearly to the 

 base into silky hairs. Radical leaves like those of the stem. 



Inflorescence a contracted spike-like panicle 3 to 4 lines broad (exclusive of 

 the bristles), 3 to G inches long, on a moderately long exserted peduncle; branches 

 of the panicle shoit (1 to 3 lines), spikelets sessile or nearly so, some of the 

 pedicels sterile and prolonged into slender scabrous bristles 6 lines long or less. 

 Spikelets ovate, acute, semi-terete, 1 to 1| lines long. 



(Humes 4; 2 lowerempty, membranaceous, glabrous; first broadly ovate, acute, 

 3-nerved, one-half the length of spikelet; second broadly oval, obtuse or mucro- 

 nate, 5-nerved, nearly as long as the spikelet, fitting closely to the flowering glume; 

 third like the second but slightly longer, acute, and subtending a rudimentary 

 lanceolate hyaline palet; fourth (flowering), when in position, narrowly ovate, acute, 

 coriaceous, rounded and minutely rugose-roughened on the back, obscurely 5-nerved. 



Flower hermaphrodite. Palet lanceolate when in position, coriaceous (the in- 

 folded margins membranaceous), flat on the back when mature, obscurely 2-nerve< I. 

 Stamens 3. Stigmas 2, oblong. 



Plate V; a, spikelet with its accompanying bristle. The spikelet is opened 



to show its parts. The flowering glume is represented too short, and should be 

 acute, while the back of the palet is not represented as flat. 



This grass has much the habit of German millet, and with proper cultivation 

 would probably produce an abundant crop. 



