48 THE AGRICULTURAL GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



States ; the others, at least two of them, are very common, though rarely 

 occurring in great quantity. They are sometimes cut for hay. They 

 cannot be recommended for culture, but may be utilized wherever they 

 grow spontaneously. The flowers grow in spreading panicles. The 

 spikelets are sessile, on short one-sided branches or spikes. The spike- 

 lets are one-flowered, possessing but two scales, which may be called 

 glumes or palets, which are strongly compressed, without awns, bristly 

 ciliate on the keels, the lower one broader and inclosing the seed. 

 Stamens, one to six; stigmas, two; grain flattened. The two common 

 species are: 



1. Leersia oryzoides. (White grass, Cut grass. False rice.) 



This is a handsome grass, the culms decumbent. It is commonly 

 called rice grass, from its strong resemblance to common rice. The 

 leaves are pale green, frequently a foot or more long, prominently veined 

 below, very rough on the margins and on the sheaths. The panicle is 

 about 1 foot long, diffusely branched, the branches mostly in twos, and 

 an inch or two distant. The spikelets are very flat, about two lines 

 long, nearlj^ sessile, and mostly toward the ends of the long branches. 

 The glumes are unequal, the lower one much the broader; the palets 

 are wanting. The leaves are so rough on the margins as readily to cut 

 the hand if roughly drawn through it. 



2. Leersia Virginica. (Small-flowered White grass.) 



In this species the panicle is much smaller and narrower, and the 

 branches appressed. The spikelets are smaller, the glumes narrower 

 and smoother, and there are but two stamens. The leaves are narrower 

 and smoother than in the first. 



HiLARIA JAMESII. 



This grass was formerly called FleurapMs Jamesii. It is a native of 

 the arid regions extending from Mexico to Colorado, growing in clumps 

 from strong, scaly runners or rhizomas. The base of the culm is usu- 

 ally covered with the dried leaves of the preceding year. The culms 

 are from 1 to 1^ feet high, with a few short, rigid, light green, or bluish 

 green leaves, which are more or less involute. Each culm is terminated 

 by a simple, loose spike, 1 or 2 inches long, with alternate clusters of 

 sessile spikelets. These clusters are quite complex in structure, each 

 one containing three spikelets, one central and two lateral. The central 

 spikelet consists of a single fertile flower, and the lateral spikelets each 

 of two male flowers. The lower glume in each lateral spikelet is awned 

 about the middle. The two outer glumes of the central , spikelet are 

 bifid or two lobed, strongly nerved, and with the nerves extended into 

 awns reaching beyond the apex of the glume 



We do not know to what extent this grass prevails, nor what may be 

 its agricultural value. (Plate 23.) 



