186 MISC. PUBLICATION 200, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



evenly along the culm, the margin 

 scabrous ; panicle dense, erect, 30 to 

 60 cm. long; spikelets 12 mm. long. 

 21 — Along irrigation ditches, Ar- 

 kansas and Texas to southern Cali- 

 fornia, occasionally established east- 

 ward from Maryland south; tropical 

 America; introduced from the warm 

 regions of the Old World. Frequently 

 cultivated for ornament, including 

 var. versicolor (Miller) Stokes, with 

 white-striped blades. In the South- 



Figure 248. — Cynosurus cristatus. Plant, X X A\ fertile 

 spikelet and floret, X 5. (Waghorne 23, Newf.) 



clumps, 2 to 6 m. tall, sparingly 

 branching, from thick knotty rhi- 

 zomes; blades numerous, elongate, 5 

 to 7 cm. wide on the main culm, con- 

 spicuously distichous, spaced rather 



mm 



Figure 249. — Cynosurus echinatus. Panicle, X 1; fer- 

 tile floret, X 5. (Macoun 80976, Vancouver Island.) 



west the culms are used for lattices, 

 mats, and screens, and in the con- 

 struction of adobe huts. In Europe 

 the culms are used for making the 

 reeds of clarinets and organ pipes. If 

 kept cut down the culms branch; in 

 this form used for hedges. Planted 

 in southeastern Texas to prevent 

 wind erosion. 



GYNfiRIUM Willd. ex Beauv. 



Plants dioecious; spikelets several- 

 flowered, the pistillate with long- 

 attenuate glumes and smaller long- 

 silky lemmas, the staminate with 

 shorter glumes and glabrous lemmas. 



