GENERA OF GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 
221 
Our commonest species is Eriochloa acuminata (Presl) Kunth, an 
annual, 1 to 2 feet tall, with spikelets about 5 mm. long, the fertile 
lemma apiculate. This is found from Kansas to Texas and Arizona, 
in open ground, often a weed in cultivated soil. In some books this 
is called E. polystachya H. B. K., a species described from Ecuador. 
A West Indian species, E. punctata (L.) Hamilt. (fig. 133), extends 
into Louisiana and Texas. 
Our species appear to be of no agricultural importance. One 
species of the West Indies (E. subglaora), called in Porto Eico 
malojilla, is used for forage. This has been tried along the Gulf 
coast from Florida to southern Texas, and has given excellent results 
in southern Florida and at Biloxi, Miss. Carib grass, as it is pro- 
posed to call this species, is similar in habit to Para grass, producing 
runners, but less extensively, and is suited to grazing and will 
furnish a good quality of hay. It will not withstand either cold or 
drought. 
114. Brachiakia (Trin.) Griseb. 
Spikelets dorsally compressed, solitary, rarely in pairs, subsessile, 
in two rows on one side of a 3-angled, sometimes narrowly winged 
rachis, the first glume turned toward the axis; first glume short or 
nearly as long as the spikelet ; second glume and sterile lemma about 
equal, 5 to 7 nerved, the lemma inclosing a hyaline palea and some- 
times a staminate flower ; fertile lemma indurate, usually papillose- 
rugose, the margins inrolled, the apex rarely mucronate or bearing a 
short awn. 
Annual or perennial, branching and spreading grasses, with linear 
blades and terminal inflorescence consisting of several spreading or 
appressed racemes along a common axis. Species about 15, in the 
warmer regions of both hemispheres; 3 species in the United 
States, 2 native along our southern border, 1 introduced. 
Type species : Panicum erucaeforme J. E. Smith. 
Brachiaria Griseb., in Ledeb. Fl. Ross. 4: 469. 1853. Only one species is 
mentioned, B. erucaeformis. 
From those species of Panicum with spikelets in one-sided spike- 
like racemes, this genus differs in having the spikelets in the reverse 
position relative to the rachis, that is, with the first glume toward the 
rachis. 
The three species, none of which has economic importance, are 
Brachiaria erucaeformis (J. E. Smith) Griseb., an annual, with 
pubescent spikelets, occasionally introduced from Europe, B. platy- 
phylla (Griseb.) Nash (fig. 134), an annual, with glabrous spikelets, 
growing in Louisiana and Texas, and B. ciliatissima (Buckl.) Chase 
(Panicum ciliatissimmn Buckl.), a perennial, with silky spikelets, 
growing in Arkansas and Texas. 
