GRASSES OF OHIO 297 



31. Capriola Adans. Bermuda-grass. 



Low diffusely branched, extensively creeping perennials, with 

 flat leaf blades and slender spikes digitately arranged at the apex 

 of upright branches. Spikelets 1-flowered, laterally compressed, ses- 

 sile, in two rows along one side of a slender continuous axis; empty 

 glumes unequal, narrow, keeled ; lemma broad, boat-shaped, ciliate 

 on the keel ; palet 2-keeled, hyaline ; grain free. 



1. Capriola dactylon (L.) Ktz. Bermuda-grass. A glabrous 

 grass with flattened, wiry, erect stems, Y\-\ ft. high, from long creep- 

 ing branched stolons, and a digitate inflorescence of 4-5 spikes. 

 Spikelets imbricated ; lemma broad and boat-shaped, longer than the 

 empty glumes. 



In fields and waste places. Cultivated in the south for pasture. 

 July-Sept. No specimens. From Europe. 



32. Eleusine Gaertn. Yard-grass 



Coarse tufted annuals or perennials with stout unilaterial spikes, 

 digitate or approximate at the summit of the stem. Spikelets sev- 

 eral-flowered, sessile, closely imbricated in two rows along one side 

 of a continuous rachis which is not extended beyond them ; empty 

 glumes unequal, shorter than the flowers, scabrous on the keel ; lemma 

 with a thickened 5-ribbed keel ; palet shorter, acute, the narrowly 

 winged keels distant ; grain black, loosely enclosed in the lemma 

 and palet. 



1. Eleusine indica (X.) Gaert. Yard-grass. A glabrous tufted 

 grass with flattened erect or decumbent stems, y 2 -2 ft. high, and an 

 inflorescence of 2-10, more or less digitately arranged spikes. Spike- 

 lets appressed, 3-6-flbwered ; lemma with a thickened 5-ribbed keel. 

 A weed. 



In yards, sidewalks, and waste places. June-September. Gen- 

 eral. Naturalized. 



33. Atheropogon Muhl. Grama-grass. 



Perennial grasses with solid stems, narrow flat leaf-blades, and 

 an inflorescence composed of numerous, short, scattered, one-sided, 

 spreading or reflex spikes. Spikelets 1-flowered, crowded in two 

 rows; empty glumes unequal, acute, narrow, keeled; lemma 3- 

 toothed ; palet narrow, hyaline, 2-toothed : grain free, enclosed in 

 the flowering glumes. 



1. Atheropogon curtipendulus (Mx.) Fourn. Tall Grama- 

 grass. A gray-green grass with simple, solid, erect stems, 1-4*/$ ft. 

 high and a long slender raceme of 15-20 spreading or reflexed spikes 



