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



6. Uniola laxa (L.) B.S.P. (Fig. 364.) Culms slender, 60 to 100 

 cm tall, erect to nodding from a loosely tufted sometimes knotty base; 

 blades elongate, flat to sometimes loosely involute, 3 to 6 mm wide; 

 panicle narrow, slender, 15 to 30 cm long, the branches short, appressed, 

 approximate, the lower sometimes 3 cm long 

 and distant; spikelets nearly sessile, approxi- 

 mate, flat, usually 3- to 4-flowered, the first 

 lemma empty; lemmas spreading, 4 to 5 mm 

 long, gradually acuminate, stria te-nerved ; 

 palea broad, the keels narrowly winged; grain 

 black, 2.5 mm long, at maturity spreading 

 the lemma and palea. % — Moist woods, 

 Coastal Plain, Long Island to Florida and 

 Texas, extending to western North Carolina, Kentucky, and Arkan- 

 sas (fig. 365). 



21. DACTYLIS L. Orchard grass 



Figure 363.— Distribution of 

 Uniola sessiliflora. 



Spikelets few-flowered, compressed, finally disarticulating between 



the florets, nearly sessile in dense 1 -sided fascicles, these borne 



at the ends of the few branches of a panicle; glumes unequal, carinate, 



acute, hispid-ciliate on the keel; lemmas compressed-keeled, mucro- 



nate, 5-nerved, ciliate on the keel. Perennials, with 



flat blades and fascicled spikelets. Type species, 



Dactylis glomerata. Name from Greek dactulos, a finger, 



alluding to the stiff branches of the panicle. 



1. Dactylis glomerata L. Orchard grass. (Fig. 

 366.) Culms in large tussocks, 

 60 to 120 cm tall; blades elongate, 

 2 to 8 mm wide ; panicles 5 to 20 

 cm long, the few distant stiff soli- 

 tary branches ascending, or 

 spreading at anthesis, appressed 

 at maturity, the lowermost some- 

 times as much as 10 cm long; 

 lemmas about 8 mm long, mucro- 



nate or short-awned. 91 — Fields, meadows, and waste 

 places, Newfoundland to southeastern Alaska, south to 

 Florida and central California; Eurasia. Commonly 

 cultivated as a meadow and pasture grass. In Eng- 

 land called cocksfoot. A variegated form (called by 

 gardeners var. variegata) is occasionally cultivated for 

 borders. 



22. CYNOSURUS L. Dogtail 



Figure 365.— Distribution of 



Uniola laxa. 



Figure 364.— Un- 

 iola laxa. Plant, 

 X 1; floret, X 5. 

 (Van Eseltine 

 and M o s e 1 e y 

 178, D.C) 



Spikelets of two kinds, sterile and fertile together, 

 the fertile sessile, nearly covered by the short-pediceled 

 sterile one, these pairs imbricate in a dense 1-sided 

 spikelike panicle; sterile spikelets consisting of 2 glumes and several 

 narrow, acuminate, 1-nerved lemmas on a continuous rachilla; fertile 

 spikelets 2- or 3-flowered, the glumes narrow, the lemmas broader, 

 rounded on the back, awn-tipped, the rachilla disarticulating above 



