Kansas State board of agriculture. 



grass, rather abundant, yields good pasturage when young, and sometimes also cut 

 for hay. (Plate No. 107.) 



108. Triodia ambigua, Vasey. — The rigid, slender culm is 2 to 4 feet high, and 

 the leaves are filiform. The panicle is contracted, 3 to 5 inches long. The spike- 

 lets are few, not longer, but much broader than in the preceding. It is not known 

 to be a valuable grass. 



109. Triodia stricta, Vasey. — The slender, firm culm is 3 to 6 feet high. The 

 panicle is very strict, (6 inches long and £ inch wide,) spike-like, and close. The 

 spikelets are flat, and nearly as broad as long. A singular but perhaps unimportant 

 grass. 



110. Triodia acuminata, Vasey. — This grass has simple stems, 6 inches or more 

 in height, usually with but a single node, which bears a very short leaf. The root- 

 leaves are an inch or two long. The panicle is dense, ovoid, 1 to 2 inches long. Not 

 known to be abundant or valuable. 



111. Sand Geass ; Triodia purpurea, Vasey. — The stems are tufted, 6 to 12 

 inches high, and have bearded joints. The panicle is very simple, consisting of but 

 few spikelets; the terminal one is usually exserted, and the axillary ones are usually 

 included in the hairy sheaths. It is an annual grass, of no known agricultural value. 



Redfieldia, Vasey.— This genus contains one species, perennial, with strong, creeping root-stocks, 

 and an elongated, lax panicle. The spikelets are ovate, compressed, 3 to 5-flowered, the base of the 

 flowers beset with white hairs. The outer glumes are about half the length of the spikelet, ovate- 

 lanceolate, 1-nerved, the upper a little longer and broader. The flowering glumes are thickish and 

 rather rigid, acute or erose-lenticulate (not 3-lobed nor 3-toothed), and 3-nerved. The palet is equal 

 to, or longer than, its glume, bidentate, folded lengthwise in the middle, and with the 2 keels promi- 

 nently folded in the opposite direction. 



112. Redfieldia flexuosa, Vasey. — The culms are flexuous, smooth, and l£ to 3 

 feet high. The leaves are rigid and slender, 1 to li feet long, and mostly near the 

 base. The panicle is lax, half or more than half the length of the culm, its lower 

 branches 4 to 6 inches long. This grass grows on the sand-hills in southwest Kansas. 



Diplachne, Beauv.— A small genus formerly included under the name Leptochloa. The panicle 

 has long, slender branches on which the spikelets are irregularly scattered in two rows. The spikelets 

 are sessile, or nearly so, many-flowered, narrow. The outer glumes are keeled, acute, and unawned. 

 The flowering glumes are 1 to 3-nerved, with a thin or hyaline, shortly 2-lobed apex, the keel pro- 

 duced into a short point or awn between the lobes. The palet is thin and prominently 2-nerved. 



113. Spike Geass; Diplachne fascicularis, Beauv. — An annual grass, 2 to 3 feet 

 high, with narrow leaves. The panicle is large, 6 to 10 inches long, consisting of 

 fifteen to thirty spike-like branches, which are 2 to 4 inches long, angular and 

 rough, and flower-bearing throughout. It grows in wet places and brackish marshes, 

 and is of but little importance. (Plate No. 113.) 



114. Spike Geass; Diplachne rigida, Vasey. — This annual grass is 1\ to 2 feet 

 high, erect, with few leaves, which are narrow, rigid, 6 to 10 inches long, and hairy 

 at the throat. The panicle is erect, stiff, 1 to 2 feet long, with numerous distant 

 spreading and spike-like branches, 4 to 6 inches long. Not of any agricultural 

 value. 



Eragrostis, Beauv.— A large genus of grasses with spikelets nearly like Poa. The panicle may be 

 loose and spreading, or narrowed and clustered. The spikelets are several (usually many)-flowered; 

 the rachis between the flowers usually glabrous. The outer empty glumes are keeled, one-nerved, un- 

 equal, and rather shorter than the flowering ones, which are unawned, three-nerved, the keel promi- 

 nent, the lateral nerves sometimes feint. The palet is shorter than the glume, has two prominent 

 nerves or keels, and often persists after the glume and grain have fallen. 



115. Ceeeping Eeagrostis; Eragrostis reptans, Nees. — A prostrate, creeping, 

 much-branched annual, with numerous linear-lanceolate, ten to thirty-flowered, spike- 

 lets. Grows in sandy or gravelly wet places, and is of little or no agricultural value. 



