MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



527 



delicate erect awn. O — Ballast, 

 Wilmington, N. C, and Mobile, 

 Ala.; West Africa. 



9. Chloris virgata Swartz. Feather 

 fingergrass. (Fig. 764.) Annual; 

 culms ascending to spreading, 40 to 

 60 or even 100 cm. tall; upper sheaths 

 often inflated; blades flat, 2 to 6 mm. 

 wide; spikes several, 2 to 8 cm. long, 

 erect, whitish or tawny,, feathery or 



in a few localities in the Eastern 

 States, Ohio, Indiana, and North 

 Carolina to Florida; Louisiana and 

 Missouri; tropical America. 



10. Chloris polydactyla (L.) 

 Swartz. (Fig. 765.) Culms erect, 

 wiry, 50 to 100 cm. tall; blades as 

 much as 1 cm. wide; spikes several 

 to many, mostly 10 to 15 cm. long, 

 flexuous, nodding, tawny, feathery; 



Figure 766. — Chloris ciliata. Pan- 

 icle, X 1; florets, X 5. (Tracy 

 8886, Tex.) 



Figure 765. — Chloris polydactyla. 

 Panicle, X 1 ; florets, X 5. (Simp- 

 son, Fla.) 



silky; spikelets crowded; lemma 3 

 mm. long, somewhat humpbacked on 

 the keel, long-ciliate on the margins 

 near the apex, the slender awn 5 to 

 10 mm. long; rudiment narrowly 

 cuneate, truncate, the awn as long 

 as that of the lemma. O (C. ele- 

 gans H. B. K.) — Open ground, a 

 common weed in fields and waste 

 places; Nebraska to Texas and south- 

 ern California; Maine and Massa- 

 chusetts, on wool waste; introduced 



spikelets crowded; lemma ciliate with 

 long silky hairs; rudiment oblong, 

 obliquely truncate, awns of lemma 

 and rudiment about 3 mm. long. % 

 — Open sandy soil, southern Florida; 

 West Indies to Paraguay. 



11. Chloris ciliata Swartz. (Fig. 

 766.) Perennial; culms erect or as- 

 cending, 50 to 100 cm. tall; leaves 

 not aggregate toward the base, 

 sheaths not much compressed; blades 

 3 to 5 mm. wide, sharply acuminate; 



