32 Bulletin VII. 1. 



The prostrate creeping stems of this grass spread rapidly and 

 soon form a dense carpet-like growth, crowding out all other vege- 

 tation. It withstands protracted drought, grows well on almost 

 any soil, and in more southern districts is evergreen, yielding good 

 pasturage both summer and winter. Seed sown here (Knoxville) 

 came up and the grass grew well for two years, making a vigorous 

 growth the second season, but it was all killed during the severe 

 winter of i892-'93. In favorable localities, particularly in the 

 southwestern part of the State, this grass may prove of much 

 value, not only in improving the pasturage, but in preventing the 

 washing of the lands, now so serious in many sections. 



5. Paspalum dilatatum Poir. {F. ovatum Nees.) Hairy-flowered 



Paspalum. 



Plate V. Figure 19. 



An erect or ascending perennial two to four feet high, with com- 

 pressed sheaths, long narrow leaves, and acute hairy spikelets. 

 Nodes smooth. Sheaths smooth, or the lower more or less bearded, 

 hairy at the throat; ligule short, (one to two lines), decurrent; leaf- 

 blade narrowly lanceolate, long acuminate-pointed, three to four 

 lines wide, scabrous along the margins, the lower a foot long or 

 more. Racemes two to ten, one terminal, the others alternate 

 below, usually approximate or sometimes two to three inches dis- 

 tant along the main axis, more or less spreading; rachis of the 

 racemes narrow (less than a line), somewhat flexuose and minutely 

 scabrous along the margins. Spikelets four-seriate, one and one- 

 half to two lines long, depressed (much less convex on the back 

 than in P. Iceve), broadly ovate; outer glumes prominently five- 

 nerved, submucronatepointed, the lower villous-hairy along 

 the margins and sometimes imperfectly seven-nerved, the upper 

 smooth or thinly hairy; floral glume rounded-obtuse, nearly as 

 broad as long, one-fifth to one-fourth shorter than the outer 

 glumes, lenticular, pale or yellowish green and minutely punc- 

 tate-striate as is the concave palea. 



Found - growing along the Mississippi at Memphis, July, 1892, 

 probably from seed introduced for cultivation. This grass doubt- 

 less has been introduced into the United States from South Amer- 

 ica; it is spoken of in the highest terms by those who have culti- 

 vated it. It affords excellent pasturage, and is particularly valu- 

 able as yielding late summer and autumn feed, during which period 

 it makes its principal growth. 



6. Paspalum pubiflorum glabrum Vasey. 



Plate V. Figure 18. 



A rather strong-growing species with ascending leafy culms, two 

 to three feet long, branching below and often rooting at the lower 

 joints of the more or less decumbent base. Nodes more or less 

 pilose-bearded with erect hairs. Sheaths smooth, often thinly 

 pilose near the scabrous margins, hairy at the throat; ligule two 



