THE AGRICULTURAL GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 73 



12 iocbes long. The panicle is ratber looser, and witb longer, more 

 naked branches, and fewer flowers tban tbe preceding species. The 

 branches are two to three together at the joints; tbe spikelets are of 

 about the same size, on longer pedicels, the awn of the flowering glume 

 ' about half longer, becoming bent and twisted. Sheep are fond of this 

 grass, and where they have access to it, gnaw it close to the ground. 

 It aflbrds, however, but a small amount of feed, and is undeserving of 

 cultivation. 



DESCHA3IPSIA DA^THO^'IOIDES. [Aira danthonioides.) 



A slender annual grass, common in Oregon and California, growing 

 in moist meadows, where, according to Mr. Bolauder, it often forms a 

 large portion of the herbage. 



From its slender culms and small leaves it cannot furnish a large bulk 

 of hay. The culms vary from 3 inches to a foot or 2 in height, some- 

 times bent and branching at the base. The leaves are 1 or 2 inches 

 long and very narrow ; the upper sheaths are very long. The panicle 

 is loose, very slender, erect, usually 2 to 5 inches long, tbe lower 

 branches in twos or threes, the upper ones in pairs or solitary, distant, 

 appressed, branching from below the middle, and two-flowered. The 

 spikelets are on slender pedicels. The outer glumes are about thi^ee 

 lines long, lanceolate, gradually sharp-pointed, three-nerved, and slightly 

 roughed on the keel. The two flowers are together, shorter than the 

 outer glumes, being each about one line long, with a small tuft of silky 

 white hairs at the base. The flowering glumes have a truncated apex 

 with four small teeth, and the awn, which is inserted on the back about 

 the middle, is three or four times as long as the glume, and usually more 

 or less twisted and bent. (Plate 63.) 



HoLCUS LAXATUS. (Velvet grass, Meadow Soft grass. Velvet Mes- 



quite grass.) 



A foreign grass, which has been introduced and has become tolerably 

 well established in many places. It is a perennial, with a stout, erect 

 culm, 2 to 3 feet high, the leaves, and especially the sheaths, densely 

 clothed with soft hairs feeling like velvet. The culm is leafy and the 

 sheaths loose ; the upper ones longer than the blade, which is three to six 

 lines wide, 4 to 5 inches long, and rather abruptly pointed. The panicle 

 is open and spreading, rather oblong in outline, and 4 to 6 inches long. 

 The branches are mostly in twos or threes, much clivided, and softly 

 pubescent. The spikelets are two-flowered, the lower one being the 

 larger and containing both stamens and pistils, the upper one small 

 and stamiuate only. The outer glumes are about two lines long, mem- 

 branaceous, boat-shaped, sparingly pubescent, and white, the upper one 

 broader and three nerved, the lower one-nerved, both much longer than 

 the flowers. The flowering glumes are smooth and shining, thicker 



