I 



68 THE AGRICULTURAL GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. ' 



PoLYPOGON MONSPELiENSis. (Beard grass.) ^ 



An annual grass frequent in California, Oregon, Arizona, Texas, and | 

 Utah, and sometimes fonnd on the Atlantic coast. It is a native of \ 

 Europe. The culms are from 6 inches to 2 feet high, rather stout, apt 

 to be procumbent at the base, and often branching below. There are j 

 usually three or four leaves on the culm, which are broad, flat, 3 to 6 j 

 inches long, and somewhat rougli j the sheaths are rather loose and ' 

 striate, and the ligule long and obtuse. The panicle varies from 1 to 4 

 inches in length, contracted into a dense cylindrical spike, of a shining, ' 

 yellowish -green color, the long awns or beards of the flowers being very 

 conspicuous. The spikelets are one-flowered, about one line long. The ! 

 outer glumes are nearly equal, one-nerved pubescent, notched at the : 

 apex, the midnerve extended into a slender awn or beard from two to 

 four times as long as the glume. The flowering glume is about half as 

 long as the outer ones, thiu, toothed at the apex, and usually having a i 

 fine awn about one line long; the palet is smaller, thin, delicate, and i 

 without an awn. ^ It is quite an ornamental grass, but of little agricult- 

 ural value. (Plate 57.) 



OiNNA AKUNDINACEA. (Wood Eccd grass.) 



A perennial grass, with erect, simple culms from 3 to 6 feet high, with 

 a creeping rhizoma; growing in swamps and moist, shaded woods in the 

 northern or mountainous districts. The leaves are broadly linear-lan- 

 ceolate, about 1 foot long, four to six lines wide, and with a conspicuous 

 elongated ligule. The panicle is from 6 to 12 inches long, rather loose 

 and oi)en in the flower, afterwards more close. The branches are four 

 or five together below, about 2 inches long, above in tAvos or threes and 

 shorter. The spikelets are one-flowered, much flattened, rather crowded 

 on the branches, frequently purple colored. The glumes are linear-lan- 

 ceolate, roughish, acute, and strongly keeled, mostly three-nerved, firm 

 in texture, about two lines long, the lower rather the shorter. The flower 

 is short-stalked within the glumes ; the flowering glume is as long as 

 the outer ones, and of the same texture, rather scabrous and three- 

 nerved, and usually with a very short awn near the apex. The palet 

 is rather shorter than its glume, thin and membranaceous, except on 

 the green somewhat rough nerve. This is one of the very rare cases in 

 which the true palet has only a simple nerve, probably, Mr. Bentham 

 says, by the consolidation of two. There is but one stamen. 



This leafy-stemmed grass furnishes a large quantity of fodder, but 

 experiments are wanting to determine its availability under cultiva- 

 tion. (Plate 58.) 



There is another species, Cinna pendula, which is more slender, with 

 a looser drooping panicle and more capillary branches, and with thinner 

 glumes. It occurs in the same situations as the preceding, and is more 

 common in the Eocky Mountains and Oregon. 



