90 Bulletin VII. 1. 



This is a valuable pasture orass, and has been found at several 

 points within the State. Like Blue Grama, it forms a dense sod, 

 which well resists the tramping of stock. Pasture lands might be 

 improved by the introduction of this species. It prefers dry and 

 somewhat sandy soil. 



39. ELEUSINE. G^rtn. Fruct. I. 7, t. i. 



Spikelets several- flowered, sessile, and closely imbricated in 

 two rows along one side of a continuous rachis which does not 

 project beyond the terminal spikelet: rachilla articulated above 

 the empty glumes. Glumes compressed, keeled, thin but rigid, ob- 

 tuse, the first two and sometimes the uppermost one empty. Palea 

 a little shorter than the glume, compressed, bicarinato. Seed 

 finely striated and enclosed within a thin pericarp. 



Coarse, tufted annuals with the rather stout unilateral spikes 

 digitate or approximate at the apex of the culm. 



Species five or six, in tropical and subtropical regions of the Old 

 World. E. Coracana is valued in iVfrica, India, and some other 

 eastern countries as a cereal. The species we have here is a com- 

 mon weed in all the warmer countries of the world. 



I. Eleusine Indica Gsertn Crow-foot or Wire-grass. 

 Plate XXX. Figure 120. 



A coarse, tufted annual, with erect or spreading stems six to 

 twenty four inches high and digitate spikes. Sheaths compressed 

 and sparingly ciliate; leaf-blade long and narrow, both surfaces 

 glabrous or the upper scabrous and thinly hairy. Spikes five to 

 seven, two to four inches long, digitate at the apex of the culm, 

 often with one or two lower down, widely spreading; spikelets 

 closely imbricated, one and one half to two lines long, three- to six- 

 flowered; glumes obtuse, the first small and one-nerved, the sec- 

 ond larger and with the flowering glumes, three- to five-nerved. 

 Seed rugose, enclosed within a thin loose pericarp. Blooming from 

 June to October. 



A very common grass in cultivated fields and about door yards. 

 It is generally regarded as a weed, and often becomes a trouble- 

 some pest in lawns and gardens. 



40. DACTYLOOTENIUM Willd. Enum. Hort. Berol. 1029 (1809). 



Spikelets several flowered, the uppermost imperfect, sessile and 

 crowded in two rows along one side of a continuous axis, forming 

 unilateral spikes, these digitate at the apex of the culm; rachilla 

 articulated above the empty glumes and between the florets. 

 Glumes laterally compressed, keeled, the first two empty, the sec- 

 ond awn-pointed. Flowering glumes boat-shaped, mucronate 

 pointed. Fruit a utricle, the thin pericarp loosely enclosing the 

 wrinkled, globular seed. Annual, with a more or less decumbent 

 and creeping base, and two to six terminal stout spikes, the rachis 

 projecting beyond the spikelets. 



