NATIVE GBASSE8 OF KANSAS. 



young, loose and spreading, with capillary branches. The spikelets are small, about 

 5-tlowered. oblong, frequently becoming purplish with age. The outer glumes are 

 unequal, thin and small, neither of them much more than half as long as the flower. 

 It is considered a nutritious and valuable grass — growing in wet places. 



143 Reed Meadow Gbass: White Spear Gbass; Glyceria aquatica, Sm. — The 

 culm is stout, erect, leafy, 3 to 4 feet high. The leaves are a foot or two long, flat 

 or somewhat rough, especially on the edges. The panicle is 9 to 15 inches long, and 

 much branched; its branches are in half whorls, arranged alternately on the main 

 axis, at first erect, but spreading with age. The spikelets are about 3 lines long, 5 

 to 9-flowered, on capillary pedicels. The species grows in wet meadows and swamps, 

 and when abundant is of some value. (Plate No. 143.) 



144. Floating Manna Gbass; Glyceria fluitans, R. Br. — The culms are usually 3 

 or 4 feet high, rather thick and succulent, and very leafy. The panicle is often a 

 foot long, very narrow; its short distant branches are mostly in twos or threes, 1 to 2 

 inches long, each with 2 to 4 spikelets. The spikelets are i to f inch in length, 

 cylindrical, and 7 to 13-flowered. This grass grows in shallow water, and its seeds 

 furnish food highly relished by fishes — as trout, carp, etc. It is also said that stock 

 of all kinds are fond of it. 



145. Manna Gbass; Glyceria distant, Wahl. — The culms are tufted, growing i to 



2 feet high. The leaves are short, narrow, and glaucous. The panicle is very vari- 

 able, erect, narrow and one-sided. The spikelets are 3 to 12-flowered. This species 

 — or at least a variety of it — is found in a region including the extreme western 

 portion of our State. Of no known value. 



Festuca, L.— A large genus of annual and perennial grasses with panicled or racemose flowers 

 not webby at the base. The spikelets are 3 to many-flowered. The outer glumes are unequal, shorter 

 than the flowers, the lower 1-nerved and the upper 3-nerved, narrow, keeled, and acute. The flower- 

 ing glumes are membranous or subcoriaceous, narrow, rounded on the back, more or less distinctly 



3 to 5-nerved, acute or tapering into a straight awn, rarely obtusish. The palet is narrow, flat, and 

 prominently 2-nerved or 2-kee!ed. 



146. Small Fescue ; Festuca tenella. ^Yilld. — This is an annual (or at most a 

 biennial) grass with slender stems 6 to 18 inches high. The erect leaves are 1 to 3 

 inches long. The panicle is spike-like, and often one-sided. The spikelets (includ- 

 ing the awns) are 4 to 5 lines long, and 7 to 15-flowered. Of little or no agricultural 

 value. 



147. Sheep's Fescue Gbass; Festuca ovina, L. — This is a densely tufted peren- 

 nial grass with many short root-leaves and slender culms 1 to \\ feet high. The 

 panicle is 2 to 4 inches long, narrow, its branches mostly single and alternate, erect 

 and few-flowered. The spikelets are mostly 3 to 5-flowered and about 3 lines long. 

 It is a good pasture grass. The cultivated forms are derived from Europe, though 

 it is also indigenous in this country. (Plate No. 147.) 



148. Habsh Fescue Gbass; Festuca duriuscula, L. — This is much like the pre- 

 ceding species, but rather taller, and stem-leaves often flat and sheaths pubescent. 

 The panicle is more open, the oblong spikelets are about 6 to 10 flowered. Occurs 

 with the last, of which it was formerly considered a mere variety. 



149. Meadow Fescue Gbass; Tall Fescue; Randall Gbass; Evebgbeen Gbass; 

 Festuca elatior, L. — A perennial grass 2 to 4 feet high, with flat leaves about a foot 

 long. The panicle is somewhat one-sided, loose and spreading in flower, (but con- 

 tracted after flowering.) from 6 to 10 inches long; its branches are 1 to 2 inches 

 long, mostly in pairs below and single above. The spikelets are lanceolate or linear, 

 about half an inch long, 5 to 10-flowered. Introduced from Europe, where it is one 

 of the standard meadow grasses. Occasionally found in our meadows naturalized. 

 (Plate No. 149.) 



