66 Kansas State bo abb of agbicultube. 



base, about 12 inches high. The leaves are pale green. The filiform spikes are 

 mostly verticillated in two series, spreading, about 6 inches long, and hairy at the 

 base. The spikelets are awned, one-sided, and alternate in 2 rows. A curious and 

 elegant grass, but perhaps of no agricultural value. ( Plate No. 96.) 



Gymnopogon, Beauv. — A small genus of perennial grasses. The spikelets are sessile and remotely 

 alternate, on long and filiform .branches of the panicle, each with 1 or rarely 2 perfect flowers, and a 

 bristle-like rudiment. The outer glumes are long-lanceolate, as long as the spikelets, nearly equal, 

 keeled and acute. The flowering-glume is cylindrical, involute, 2-toothedor lobed at the apex — hav- 

 ing a straight, slender awn from the midrib. The palet, included in its glume, is narrow and 2-keeled. 

 The glume of the imperfect flower also has a long awn. 



97. Naked Beard Gbass; Gymnopogon racemosus, Beauv. — The wiry, leafy culms 

 are a foot high, and clustered from a short root-stock. The slender rays or spikes 

 of the crowded raceme (or panicle) are flower-bearing to the base. Found only in 

 southeastern Kansas; perhaps not abundant nor valuable. 



Schedonnardus, Steud.— A very small and unimportant genus. The spikelets are 1-flowered, sol- 

 itary at each joint of the slender triangular rachis of the paniculate, alternate and distant spikes ; each 

 is partly immersed in an excavation. The outer glumes are acuminate, unequal, the longer equalling 

 the flowering glume, which is linear-acuminate and thickish at the keel. The palet is shorter and 

 thinner. 



98. Texas Spike-geass ; Schedonnardus Texanus, Steud. — This annual grass 

 (formerly called Lepturus paniculatus) grows 6 to 20 inches high, has a panicle of 

 slender, naked triangular spikes. Of no agricultural value. 



Bouteloua, Lag.— There are many species of this genus, mostly perennial, and they furnish a 

 large portion of the native forage of our State. There are generally many spikes, in a racemose one- 

 sided panicle. The spikes are from £ to 11 inches long, and mostly densely-flowered. The spikelets are 

 one-sided, crowded in two rows ; each consists of one perfect flower, a stalked pedicel with empty 

 glumes and 1 to 3 stiff awns. The outer glumes are unequal, acute, keeled, and membranous. The 

 flowering glume is broader, usually thicker, and with 3 to 5 lobes, teeth, or awns at the apex. The palet 

 is hyaline, narrow, and enfolded by its glume. 



99. Bristly Mesquite; Gramma Grass; Bouteloua hirsuta, Lag. — This grows to 

 a height of 6 to 20 inches; has very narrow leaves. The spikes number 1 to 5, are 

 oblong-linear, very dense, having the spikelets pectinately crowded on one side. 

 The upper glume has bristly hairs from dark, warty glands. The sterile glume and 

 its pedicel are not hairy. This is one of the valuable native forage grasses. 



100. Mesquite Grass: Gramma Grass; Bouteloua oligostachya, Torr. — This is 

 much like the preceding, but the glumes are soft-hairy, and the pedicel of the sterile 

 glume is copiously villous-tufted. This is not the true Buffalo Grass, though often 

 called by that name. It is perhaps even much more valuable than that, furnishing 

 an enormous amount of the native forage of the plains. (Plate No. 100.) 



101. Tall Gramma Grass; Bouteloua racemosa, Lag. — The tufted stems of this 

 grow to a height of 1 to 3 feet. The spikes are $ inch in length or shorter, reflexed, 

 nearly sessile, 30 to 60 in number, which form a loose general spike 8 to 15 inches 

 long. This grass is abundant, and valuable for pasture and for hay. 



Elkusine, Gaert.— A small genus of annual grasses, with 2 to 5 or more spikes digitate at the sum- 

 mit of the stem or sometimes scattering ones lower down. The spikelets are sessile and crowded along 

 one side of the rachis; they are 2 to 6-flowered,the uppermost flowers being imperfect or rudimentary. 

 The outer glumes are membranaceous and shorter than the spikelet. The flowering glume is usually 

 obtuse. The palet is folded and 2-keeled. 



102. Yard Grass ; Crow-foot ; Crab Grass ; Wire Grass ; Eleusine Indica, 

 Gaert. — An annual grass, native of tropical regions, but everywhere naturalized in 

 temperate countries. The culms are 1 to 3 feet high, coarse and leafy, especially 

 below. The spikes, <fcc, as described above. A valuable grass in the South, but here 

 considered a weed. 



