42 THE AGRICULTURAL GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



clusters of spikelets, at the base of each of which there springs two or 

 three bristles, sometimes short and sometimes so long as to give the' 

 head a very bristly appearance. The bristles are roughened or barbed 

 by numerous teeth-like processes on the margin, pointing towards the 

 apex. The spikelets are about 1 line long ; the lower glume is about 

 one-third as long as the upper one, which, with the glume of the sterile 

 flower, is obtusish and about the length of the perfect flower. There is 

 a great difference in the different varieties and forms of this grass, so 

 much so that some of them have been considered different species, but 

 the general opinion of botanists is that they are all varying forms of the 

 same species, dependent upon the character of the soil, thickness of 

 seeding, moisture or dryness, and time of sowing. It owes its value as 

 a fodder plant to the abundance of its foliage and to the large quantity 

 of seed produced. In some instances objection has been made to this 

 grass on account of the bristles which surround the seed, and which 

 have been said to penetrate the stomachs of cattle so as to cause inflam- 

 ation and death. But it is plain that this opinion is not generally 

 held, as the cultivation of the grass is widely extended and everywhere 

 recommended. 



For forage it should be cut as soou as it blooms, when of course, it is worth nothing 

 for seed, but is most vahiable for forage and exhausts tlie land much less. If left 

 for the seed to mature they are very abundant and rich feed, but the stems are worth- 

 less while the soil is more damaged. The matured stems are very hard, indigestible 

 and injurious, and the ri^je seeds will founder more promptly than corn, and some- 

 times produce diabetes if mouldly and too freely used. If cut at the right stage the 

 whole plant is a safe and very valuable forage. On good soil if the ground be moist 

 it will be ready for mowing in sixty days from seeding and produce from two to four 

 tons of hay per acre. It is folly to sow it on poor land. — Professor Phares. 



(Plate 16.) 



Setaria setosa. (Bristle grass, Fox tail.) 



A native species growing in New Mexico, Texas, and southward into 

 Mexico and South America. It grows about 2 feet high. The stem and 

 leaves are smooth excei)t a fine bairy ring at th^ joints. The leaves are 

 6 to 10 inches long, narrow, and gradually tapering to a long point. 

 There is a tuft of short white hairs at the top of the leaf sheath. The 

 panicle is 4 to 6 inches long, erect or slightly nodding at the top, nar- 

 rowly cylindrical with very short sessile branches, usually somewhat 

 interrupted below, sometimes the lower branches are longer and the 

 panicle looser. It has much the appearance of the other species which 

 we called Pigeon grass. The axis of the panicle is scabrous. The lower 

 glume is broadly ovate, more than half as long as the upper, clasping 

 the base of the spikelet, three-nerved, acute, the margins scarious and 

 minutely pubescent 5 the upper glume is also broadly ovate, short-pointed, 

 five-nerved, about as long as the perfect spikelet 5 the glumes of the 

 sterile flower are much like the upper empty glumes and also five-nerved ; 

 its palet is about two-thirds as long as the glume, and much narrower f 



