THE GRASSES OF MAINE. 53 



58. Avena striata, Michaux. 

 A-ve'-na stri-d-ta. 

 PLATE XXIX. 

 Common Names. Wild Oat-Grass, Purple Wild-Oats. 

 Perennial. Stems erect, simple, smooth, from one to three feet 

 high ; leaves long and smooth, the sheaths close and conspicuously 

 striate. Spikelets from three to six-flowered, much exceeding the 

 length of the acute, purplish glumes : lower glume one. the upper 

 three-nerved ; flowers short-bearded at the base. 

 Grows on rocky and shady hills. Flowers in Julv. 

 Its productiveness and agricultural value have not been tested. 

 Vermont specimens analyzed at the Department of Agriculture, 

 gave ash 4.96, fat 4.00, nitrogen-free extract 56.13, crude fiber 

 26.16, albuminoids 8.75. 



Genus Trisetum, Persoom. 

 Tri-se'-tum. 



From the Latin, tris, three, and seta, a bristle, in allusion to the 

 three bristles of the flower. 



Spike lets two or three, rarely five-flowered, in a dense or open 

 panicle, the rhachis usually hairy and produced into a bristle at the 

 base of the upper flower; glumes unequal, acute, keeled, membran- 

 aceous, with scarious outer margins. Flowering glume of similar 

 texture, keeled, acute, the apex two- toothed, the teeth sometimes pro- 

 longed into bristle-like points, the middle nerve with an awn attached 

 above the middle, usually twisted at the base and bent at the middle ; 

 palea hyaline, narrow, two-nerved and two-toothed. 



59. Trisetum subspicatum, Beauvois. 



Tri-se'-tum sub- spi-ca' -turn. 



PLATE xxx. 



Perennial. Stems erect, about a foot high ; leaves short and flat ; 



minutely soft, down} T ; panicle dense, much contracted, oblong or 



linear, from two to three inches long; glumes about the length of 



the two or three flowers ; awn diverging. Grows on mountains and 



river banks. Flowers in July. Not a common grass in Maine, but 



should it receive attention, it might prove a valuable grass for high 



pastures. 



