THE AGRICULTURAL GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 43 



the perfect flower is oblong, very fluely striate aud dotted. The bristles 

 are variable iu length, about one to each spikelet, usually three to four 

 times as long as the spikelet. 



We know little as to the agricultural value of this species; as it is 

 'found in the arid districts it is deserving the attention of farmers of that 

 section. (Plate 17.) 



Set ARIA GLAXCA. (Pigeon grass, Bottle grass.) 



A native of most tropical and many temperate climates, and has been 

 introduced into most cultivated fields, springing up or growing after the 

 cutting of wheat and early grain, and making its growth in the latter 

 part of the season. It is generaly an annual, but southward it assumes 

 a perennial form. It grows about 2 feet high, with leaves 6 to 9 inches 

 long, one-fourth to one-third of an inch wide, and generally smooth. The 

 i:)anicle is terminal, cylindrical, 2 to 3 inches long, aud about one-third of 

 an inch wide, dense and spikelike from the numerous, approximated 

 short branches or clusters of flowers. These clusters consist of from 

 one to three spikelets, having at the base of each a cluster of from six 

 to ten bristles, which are two to four liues long, and finely barbed up- 

 wardly. When mature they assume a tawny yellow color. The spike- 

 lets are a little over a line long, oblong ; both the outer glumes are short 

 and broad, the lower one third and the upper two-thirds as long as the 

 flower ; the glume of the male or lower flower is broadly ovate, obtusish 

 and five-nerved, its palet is of equal length aud two-nerved ; the perfect 

 flower is oblong, beautifully striated longitudinally, wrinkled and dotted 

 transversely. This grass is often found with the next [S. Viridis), iu 

 stubble fields, aud furnishes a considerable amount of fodder, which is 

 as nutritious as Hunoarian grass, but not as productive. The figure 

 (Plate 18) does not represent a suflicient quantity of bristles. 



Setaria viridis. (Green Pigeon or Foxtail.) 



This species has the general habit and appearance of the preceding; it 

 difiers in the commonly looser, longer, aud more tapering, less erect 

 spike, in the smaller spikelets, shorter lower glume, less distinctly 

 transversely wrinkled seed, and in fewer bristles, which are of a green- 

 ish color. It grows in the same situations and commonly with the pre- 

 ceding. The seeds of both kinds are eagerly sought for b^' birds and 

 l)Oultr\-, especially among the stubble after harvesting wheat. 



Pexicillaria spicata. (African cane, Egyptian Millet, East India 

 Millet, Cat-tail, and Pearl Millet.) 



A tall, erect, thick-stemmed grass. It grows to the height of 6 feet 

 or more, and the stock is terminated by a compact, dense, cyliudrical spike 

 resembling the common cat-tail, frequently a foot long and an inch in 

 thickness, which is studded with the small obovate sessile grains, sur- 

 rounded at the base by an abundance of short, coarse hairs or bristles. 



