GRASSES OF OHIO 289 



Extensively cultivated for its grain and straw. Persisting in 

 fields and along roads and railways. June, July. Rather general. 

 Escaped from cultivation. 



3. Avena fatua L. Wild Oats. An annual grass with a stout 

 simple erect stem, 1-4 ft. high, and an open panicle with ascending 

 branches. Spikelets pendulous; empty glumes smooth, lemma 

 pubescent with long rigid brown hairs and a ring of hairs at the 

 base, its long stiff awn inserted about the middle and bent and 

 twisted. A weed. 



In fields and waste places. July, August. From Europe. Xo 

 specimens. 



19. Deschampsia Beauv. Hair-grass. 



Tufted perennial grasses with flat or involute leaves and con- 

 tracted or open panicles of shining spikelets. Spikelets 2-flowered,. 

 the hairy rachilla extended beyond the flowers or rarely ending in 

 a staminate one ; empty glumes keeled, acute, membraneous ; lemmas 

 thin, 4-nerved, the midnerve becoming an awn, toothed at the apex; 

 palet narrow, 2-nerved ; grain free enclosed in the flowering glumes. 



1. Deschampsia flexuosa (L.) Trin. Wavy Hair-grass. A 

 glabrous grass with an erect slender simple stem, \-2 l / 2 ft. high, 

 sheaths much shorter than the internodes, involute setaceous leaves, 

 and an open panicle with erect, ascending or widely spreading, flex- 

 uous branches naked at the base. Lemma acutely toothed at the 

 apex and with a twisted' bent awn inserted near its base. 



In dry places. July, August. Portage County. 



20. Aspris Adans. Hair-grass. 



Small, delicate annuals with narrow leaf-blades and contracted 

 or open panicles. Spikelets small, 2-rlowered, both Mowers perfect ; 

 empty glumes thin-membranous, subequal, acute ; lemmas hyaline. 

 2-toothed, bearing a delicate dorsal awn arising below the middle ; 

 palet hyaline, 2-nerved ; grain enclosed in the flowering glumes and 

 usually adherent to them. 



1. Aspris caryophyllea (L.) Nash. Silvery Hair-grass. A 

 delicate glabrous annual grass with erect stems, y 2 -\ ft. high, in- 

 volute setaceous leaves, and an open, silvery, shining panicle. 

 Spikelets clustered toward the ends of the capillary branches; lem- 

 ma with a bent awn, very acute, 2-toothed. 



In fields and waste places. May-July. From Europe. Lake 

 County. 



