112 THE AGRICULTURAL GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Elymus striatus. (Smaller Eye grass, Dennett grass). 



This grass has a structure as to the flower-spike similar to the pre- 

 ceding, but it is a more slender grass in all its parts, varying from 

 smooth to pubescent. The spike is 3 to 4 inches long, cylindrical, and 

 inclined to droop. The glumes are more slender than in E. YirginicuSy 

 with longer awns. The spikelets are usually two-flowered, the empty 

 glumes narrow, rigid, and about 1 inch long. The body or dilated part 

 of the flowering glume is oblong, about four lines long, and tipped with 

 a slender awn an inch or more in length. 



This species grows in rocky woods and on river banks, growing more 

 sparsely than the preceding, and it is said by some to furnish a good 

 hay. 



Professor Phares says of this species: 



This, also, is a perennial and a native of the Southern States. Everything said of 

 the preceding, E. Virginicus, applies with equal force to this, except the spikes of this 

 are 3 to 7 inches long, and often slightly nodding. Also the spike of this species is 

 raised by its long peduncle far above the sheath of the upper leaf, while the spike of 

 the other is partly included in the upper sheath. They may be grazed or mown re- 

 peatedly' during spring and early summer, and grow rapidly after each mowing. 

 Many acres have been planted in the last few years. As hay it is rather hard unless 

 cut when young. It should be cut as soon as the blooms appear or earlier. It would 

 be preferable to have these grasses for grazing or soiling, and to sow better grasses 

 for hay. 



(Plate 119.) 



Elymus condensatus. (Giant Rye grass. Western Eye grass.) 



This is a perennial grass, ranging from San Diego throughout Cali- 

 fornia, and into Oregon and Washington Territory, also in the Eocky 

 Mountain region of the interior. It is very variable, but always a 

 strong, heavy-rooted, coarse grass, from 3 to ^►or even to 12 feet high. 

 Mr. Bolander states that it seems to do excellent service by fixing the 

 'soil on the banks of creeks and rivers. In the larger forms the culms 

 are half an inch thick. The leaves are smooth, 2 feet long and an inch 

 wide, or more, and the panicle 8 to 14 inches long and 1^ inches thick. 

 As it usually occurs in arid grounds it is from 3 to 6 feet high, the 

 leaves about a foot long and half an inch wide, and the spike-like pan- 

 icle J: to 8 inches. In the large form the branches of the panicle are 

 subdivided and 1 or 2 inches long. 



More commonly there are two to five sessile spikelets at each joint of 

 the axis, the spikelets about three-flowered. The outer glumes are sub- 

 ulate or short, bristle-like. The flowering glumes are mostly coriaceous^ 

 five-nerved, rounded on the back, and acute or mucronate pointed. 



There is a variety called Tritlcoides, which has a more slender, less 

 crowded spike, the spikelets more distant, not more than two at a joint, 

 and frequently single, the culm more slender, and the leaves narrow 

 or involute. This variety seems to unite the genus to Tnticum. (Plate 

 120.) 



