THE AGRICULTURAL GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 51 



AYitliin tbe outer glumes are two thin hyaline glumes, one nearly as 

 long as the outer glumes, and a shorter one with a twisted and bent awn 

 half an inch or more in length. The true i)alet is very minute or 

 wanting. 



This grass when it occurs in quantity is frequently utilized for hay 

 making, for which purpose it should be cut early. There are three 

 other species occurring in the Southern and Southwestern States not 

 of much value in an economic view. (Plate 28.) 



Sorghum halapense. (( uba grass, Johnson grass, Means grass, 

 False Guinea grass. Evergreen millet, Arabian millet.) 



A tall perennial grass, with strong, thick, nndergrowing root-stocks, 

 and an abundance of long and wide leaves. Its stems attain a height 

 of 5 or 6 feet, with a large and spreading panicle. In botanical charac- 

 ters it does not differ much from the preceding genus, except in habit 

 and in the flower glumes becoming more hardened after flowering. The 

 panicle when well developed is a foot or more in length, with the lower 

 branches 5 or 6 inches long, and whorled, the upper ones, fewer and grad- 

 ually shorter, becoming widely spreading, subdivided and flower-bear- 

 ing to below the middle. The spikelets on the short branchlets are in 

 pairs at each joint and in threes at the extremity. Of the j)airs, one 

 is sessile and perfect, the other is stalked and male only. Of those at 

 the extremity, one is sessile and perfect, and two stalked and male only. 

 The spikelets are about two lines long, ovate-lanceolate. The outer 

 glumes of the fertile spikelets are acute, coriaceous, smooth, and shining, 

 or with a few sparse hairs; the veins, (5 to 9) are obscure externally, 

 but internally are plain and sometimes beautifully cross-veined. Within 

 these thick outer glumes are two thin delicate leaflets, by some called 

 X)alets, by others considered to be inner glumes, the shorter of which 

 occasionally bears a twisted awn or beard half an inch long. The male 

 spikelets are on stems or pedicels one line long. They are as long as 

 the perfect flowers, but the outer glumes are much thinner, and they 

 contain only three stamens. The flowers and seeds are similar to 

 those of broom-corn, which belongs to the same genus. 



This grass has been often called Guinea grass, but that name prop- 

 erly belongs to a quite different plant, Fanicum jumentorum^ of which 

 see an account elsewhere. The underground root stocks are sometimes 

 half an inch thick, very succulent, and are eagerly sought for and eaten 

 by hogs. The grass spreads and is readily propagated from these root- 

 stocks, every joint being capable of developing a new shoot. iVlr. N. B. 

 Moore, of Augusta, Ga., has cultivated this grass for over forty ^ears, 

 and luefers it to all others. He says it is perennial, as nutritious as 

 any other, when once set is difficult to eradicate, will grow on ordinary 

 land, and yields abundantly. 



My meadow consists of 100 acres of alluvial laud; the grass should be cut when 

 from 2 to 4 feet high ; on such land as mine it will afford three or four cuttings if the 

 season is propitious. 



