THE AGRICULTURAL GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 49 



Andropogon. 



There are numerous species of tbis genus. They are perennial grasses, 

 mostly tall, and with tough, wiry steins. Some of them occur in nearly 

 all parts of the country from New England to Florida aud west to Ari- 

 zona. They are most abundant, however, in the Southern States, where ,/ 

 they have been employed for permanent pastures. When they occur in 

 quantity they can be utilized,* but to be of value they should be kept 

 from sendiug up their strong stems as these are universally rejected by 

 cattle and horses. They are not to be recommended for cultivation, 

 but their place^should as soon as possible be supplanted by more valu- 

 able grasses. 



We will mention the more common kinds : 



1. Andropogon Virginious. (Broom grass. Broom sedge.) 



This species has an extended range on the eastern part of this conti- 

 nent, growing in a great variety of soils and situations, but mostly on 

 dry hills, abandoned fields, or stony woods and pastures. The culms 

 are from 2 to 4 feet high, and very leafy j the leaves two -ranked at 

 the base, smooth except a few long hairs on the margins and at the 

 throat of the sheath. The panicle is long, narrow, and leafy, 1 to 2 feet 

 long, composed of numerous lateral branches from the upper joints. 

 These branches are several times subdivided and partly inclosed in* 

 the long-leaf sheath, each ultimate sheath or bract inclosing usually a 

 pair of loose, slender flower spikes. These spikes are about 1 inch long, 

 comprising ten or twelve joints, each joint giving rise to one sessile fer- 

 tile spikelet, and a hairy pedicel longer than the fertile flower, at ihe 

 summit of which there is the vestige of a flower, or a mere bristle-like 

 point. The" fertile spikelets are one-*flowered aud consist of two outer 

 thickish glumes and two thin transparent inner ones, one of which has 

 a slender awn three or four times its own length ; the upper one is by 

 some considered as a palet, and is not awned. (Plate 24.) 



2. Andropogon scopariijs. (Wood grass, Broom grass.) 



This grass usually grows from 2 to 3 feet high, the flowering spikes 

 coming out in small clusters from many of the side joints on slender, 

 graceful peduncles. The spikes have a small bract near the base, and 

 consist of a slender axis, with from six to ten alternate joints. At each 

 joint there is one sessile, fertile spikelet, and a flatttened hairy pedicel 

 or stalk nearly as long as the fertile spikelet, and at its apex a rudi- 

 mentary flower, consisting of a single awned glume. The fertile spikelet 

 has two outer, empty, narrowly lanceolate glumes, about four lines long. 

 The flowering glume is very thin, and furnished with a twisted awn 

 twice as long as the flower. The palet is also very thin and shorter than 

 its glume. 



Mr. Charles Mohr, of Mobile, says of this grass : 



One of our most common grasses, covering old lields aud fence-rows, aud extensively 

 growing in the dry sandy soil of the pine woods. Much despised as it is as atrouble- 

 2218 GR 4 ^ 



