THE AGRICULTURAL GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 99 



It is probable that tbis species, by careful cnltivatioD. may be made 

 as valuable iu agriculture for the region where it grows as the Poo pra- 

 ien>iis is iu the Eastern States. (Plate 101.) 



PoA ALSODES. (Tall Spcar-grass, Woods grass, Wood Spear grass.) 



A species of spear-grass of, probably, no great agricnltural value, but 

 found in mountainous districts in the northern parts of the United 

 States, in woods and on hill sides in Xew England, Xew York, the 

 mountainous parts of Pennsylvania, and westward to Wisconsin. The 

 ouhns are 2 to 2^ feet high, slender, erect, and with about three nar- 

 rowly-linear leaves, each 3 to 4 inches long. The i)anicle is about G 

 inches long, very open, and composed of about four whorls of branches, 

 chiefly in fours, the lower ones distant, very slender, 2 to 3 inches long^ 

 and with few flowers only toward the extremity of the branches. The 

 species may most readily be distinguished by the acute flowers. The 

 spikelets are about two lines long, chiefly three-flowered. All the glumes 

 are acutely-pointed, the flowering ones obscurely nerved, and with a 

 narrow tuft of long, webby hairs at the b^se. 



]\lr. J. S. Gould says : 



It Nourishes on mountaiu sides from 1,000 to 3,000 feet above the sea, but is very 

 •well adapted for lavrns and for thick, shady places, where few other kiuds will grow. 

 The seeds weigh about 15 pouuds to the bushel. 



(Plate 102.) 



PoA A>'DiyA OF XuTTALL. (Mountain Spear grass.) 



A -perennial tufted grass, with short, narrow, rigid, and pun gently 

 pointed leaves, usually involute ; the culms are to IS inches high, 

 smooth, or nearly so, wiry and naked, excei)t about two very short 

 leaves, the blade an inch long, or almost wanting. The panicle is 2 to 

 4 inches long, narrow, erect, and rather loose, the branches mostly in 

 pairs, which are erect, about an inch long, and flowering for the upper 

 two-thiids, or nearly throughout. The spikelets are three to five flow- 

 ered, and nearly sessile: the outer glumes are one and a half lines long, 

 nearly equal, thin, ovate-lanceolate, acute or acutish, the margins scari- 

 ous. the lower one-nerved, and the upper obscurely three-nerved, mi- 

 nutely scabrous ; the flowering glumes are oblong, obtuse, or obtusish, 

 slightly compressed, rounded on the back, at least below, obscurely 

 nerved, softly and finely pubescent and below villous ; the apex scari- 

 ous and tinged with purple, sometimes denticulate or lacerated : the 

 l)alets are as long as their glumes, and pubescent on the nerves. The 

 flowers separate very readily and drop ofl:' early. 



This grass prevails widely throughout the region of the great plains 

 and table lands from Arizona to P>ritish America. Little is known of its 

 agricultural value. (Plate 103.) 



