Native Grasses of Kaxsas. 57 



The spikelets are pale green (or rarely purplish) and about 1 line long. This grass 

 grows in low or wet places. Cattle and horses are very fond of it — which can be 

 said of scarcely any other species of the genus. (Plate No. 19.) 



20. Old Witch-grass; Haib-stalked Panic-gbass; Panicum capillare, L. — An 

 annual grass 6 inches to 2 feet high, bearing a large terminal panicle with long 

 slender branches. The leaves and sheaths are usually covered with long spreading 

 hairs. It is abundant on cultivated ground late in the season. It is not only a 

 worthless grass, but al*o a pestiferous weed. (Plate No. 20.) 



21. Fall Panic-gbass; Panicum autumnale, Bosc. — This has a panicle like 

 depauperate forms of the last species. The lower sheaths and margins of the small 

 narrow leaves are more or less hairy, but otherwise the plant is smooth, except some 

 bristly hairs in the axils of the branches of the panicle. It is not abundant nor 

 important. 



22. Switch Gbass; Tall Panic-gbass; Panicurn virgatum, Jj. — A. tall perennial 

 grass, growing in clumps. The culms are erect, firm and unbranched. The leaves 

 are 1 to 2 feet long, and rough on the margin. The panicle is diffuse, rather pyra- 

 midal, J to 2 feet long, and the spikelets are ovate, pointed and about 2 lines in 

 length. The sterile flower, unlike all the preceding species of the genus, is stami- 

 nate. This grass contributes somewhat to the native forage. It makes tolerable 

 hay only when cut young. (Plate No. 22.) 



23. Beoad-leaved Panic-gbass; Panicum latifolium, L. — The culm is 1 to 2 

 feet high; the leaves are broadly oblong-lanceolate from a heart-clasping base, 

 11 tolo-nerved, smooth except some soft hairs at the throat or margins of the sheaths 

 and at the joints. The panicle is small, (about 2 or 3 inches long,) and the spikelets 

 li lines long. It grows in protected and moist places, but is not abundant. 



24. Panic-gbass; Panicum clandestinum, L. — Much like the last, but the joints 

 naked, and the sheaths rough with papillae bearing very stiff and spreading bristly 

 hairs. More common than the last, but of inconsiderable value. 



25. Panic-gbass; Panicum microcarpon, Muhl. — Much like Panicum latifolium, 

 but the leaves not dilated at the rounded, bristly ciliate base; they are also very 

 rough-margined and roughish above. The panicle is 3 to 7 inches long, and the 

 spikelets only i line. 



26. Panic-gbass; Panicum xanthophysum, Gr. — This grass grows 9 to 15 inches 

 high, has hairy sheaths and lanceolate pointed leaves, which are clasping and ciliate 

 (but not dilated) at the base, otherwise smooth except the margins. The panicle is 

 long peduncled, and very simple. Rare and unimportant. 



27. Panic-gbass; Panicum viscidum. Ell. — In this the culms are upright or as- 

 cending, at length much branched and leafy to the top. The culms and sheaths 

 are densely velvety all over — except a ring below each joint — with reflexed soft 

 hairs. In other characters much like the three preceding species. 



28. Panic-gbass; Panicum scoparium, Lam. — The culms are roughish, 1 to 2 

 feet highy at length much branched and reclining. The lanceolate leaves are faintly 

 9-nerved, hairy or smooth, and fringed on the margin (at least next the base), 

 with long and stiff spreading hairs; the sheaths also are bristly. The panicle is 

 open and nearly simple. Not an important grass. 



29. Panic-gbass; Panicum dichotomum, L. — This is a very variable as well as 

 unimportant grass, having culms 8 to 20 inches high. The panicle is compound, 1 

 to 3 inches long. The spikelets are -J- to nearly 1 line in length. 



30. Panic-gbass; Panicum depauperatum, Muhl. — The culms in this species 

 form close tufts 6 to 12 inches high, and bear a simple and few-flowered, contracted 

 panicle, often overtopped by the narrowly linear (4 to 7 inches long) upper leaves. 

 The spikelets are 1 to lh lines in length. Unimportant. 



