418 



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



tracted, 5 to 10 cm. long, usually 

 partly enclosed; spikelets 5 to 7 mm. 

 long, the glumes keeled, acute or sub- 

 acute, the first more than half as long- 

 as the spikelet, the second longer than 

 the first; lemma sparsely appressed- 

 pubescent, acuminate, the palea 

 longer, sometimes as much as 10 mm. 

 long. % (S. canovirens Nash.) — 

 Sandy fields, pine barrens, hills, and 

 prairies, Connecticut to Wisconsin 

 and Kansas, south to Florida and 

 Texas. 



8. Sporobolus poiretii (Roem. and 

 Schult.) Hitchc. Smutgrass. (Fig. 

 597.) Perennial; culms erect, solitary 

 or in small tufts, 30 to 100 cm. tall; 

 blades flat to subinvolute, rather 

 firm, 2 to 5 mm. wide at base, elon- 

 gate, tapering to a fine point; panicle 

 usually spikelike but more or less in- 

 terrupted, 10 to 40 cm. long, the 

 branches appressed or ascending; 

 spikelets about 2 mm. long; glumes 

 obtuse, somewhat unequal, about 

 half as long as the spikelet or less; 

 lemma acutish. 91 (Sporobolus 

 berteroanus (Trin.) Hitchc. and 

 Chase.) — Open ground and waste 

 places, Virginia to Tennessee and 

 Oklahoma, south to Florida, Texas, 

 and the warmer parts of America to 

 Argentina; on ballast in Oregon and 

 New Jersey; tropical Asia, apparently 

 introduced in America. At maturity 

 the extruded reddish caryopses re- 

 main for some time sticking to the 

 panicle by the mucilaginous pericarp. 

 Often affected with a black fungus. 

 This species has been referred to the 

 Australian S. elongatus R. Br., which 

 seems to be distinct, differing in its 

 looser panicle. 



9. Sporobolus indicus (L.) R. Br. 

 (Fig. 598.) Resembling S. poiretii, 

 but the blades more slender, espe- 

 cially at base, and the panicle branches 

 longer, more slender, less densely 

 flowered, loosely ascending to some- 

 what spreading, the panicle not spike- 

 like. % — Punta Gorda, Fla.; bal- 

 last, Mobile, Ala.; tropical America. 



10. Sporobolus virginicus (L.) 

 Kunth. (Fig. 599.) Perennial, with 



Figure 596. — Sporobolus clan- 

 destinus. Plant, X 1; glumes 

 and floret, X 10. (Chase 

 4265, Fla.) 



long, the glumes keeled, the first 

 about two-thirds as long, the second 

 a little longer than the first; lemma 

 and palea subequal, the tips boat- 

 shaped. % — Wet pineland, Okla- 

 homa, Mississippi, Louisiana, and 

 Texas. Except for the rhizomes this 

 species resembles S. asper var. hookeri. 

 7. Sporobolus clandestinus 

 (Bieler.) Hitchc. (Fig. 596.) Peren- 

 nial; culms relatively stout to slender, 

 erect to spreading, 50 to 100 cm. tall; 

 lower sheaths sometimes pilose; 

 blades flat, becoming involute, with 

 a long fine point; panicle narrow, con- 



