THE AGRICULTURAL GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 69 



Deyeuxia (Oalamagrostis.) 



This genus is characterized by having one-flowered spikelets, with the 

 addition at the base of the flowering glume of a small hairy appendage or 

 pedicel, which is considered to be the rudiment of a second flower. In 

 addition to this the flower is also generally surrounded at the base with 

 a ring of soft hairs, and the flowering glume usually bears an awn on 

 its back, which is generally bent and twisted. Our species have been 

 until recently included in the genus Calamagrostis, which is principally 

 a very similar European genus. 



Deyeuxia (Oalamagrostis) Canadensis. (Blue Joint, Small Eeed 



grass.) 



A stout, erect, tall perennial grass, growing chiefly in wet, boggy 

 ground or in low, moist meadows. Its favorite situation is in cool, ele- 

 vated regions. It prevails in all the northern portions of the United 

 States, in the Eocky MountainSj and in British America. In those dis- 

 tricts it is one of the best and most productive of the indigenous grasses. 

 It varies much in luxuriance of foliage and size of panicle, according 

 to the location. The culms are from 3 to 5 feet high, stout and hollow, 

 hence in some places it is called the small reed-grass. The leaves are 

 a foot or more long, flat, from a quarter to nearly half an inch wide, 

 and roughish ; the stem and sheaths smooth. 



The panicle is oblong in outline, open, and somewhat spreading, es- 

 pecially during flowering; it is from 4 to 6 or even 8 inches in length, 

 and 2 or 3 inches in diameter, of a purplish color; the branches are 

 mostly in fives at intervals of an inch or less. These branches vary in 

 length from 1 to 3 inches, the long ones flowering only toward the ex- 

 tremity. The spikelets are short-stalked, the outer glumes about one 

 and one-half lines long, lanceolate and acute ; the silky white hairs at 

 the base of the flowering glume, are about as long as the glume; those 

 on the sterile pedicel also nearly as long. The flowering glume is thin 

 and delicate, about as long as the outer glumes, and somewhat finely 

 toothed at the apex, three to five nerved, and bearing on the back, be- 

 low the middle, a delicate awn, reaching about to the point of the glume, 

 and not much stouter than the hairs. The proper palet is thin, oblong, 

 and about two-thirds the length of its glume. 



Mr. J. S. Gould says : 



It constitutes about one-tliird of the natural grasses on tlie Beaver Dam Meadows 

 of the Adirondaclis. It is certain that cattle relish it very nuich, both iu its green 

 state and when made into hay, and it is equally certain that the farmers who have 

 it on their farms believe it to be one of the best grasses of their meadows. 



(Plate 59.) 



Deyeuxia sylvatica. (Bunch grass.) 



A coarse perennial grass, growing in large tufts, usually in sandy 

 ground in the Eocky Mountains at various altitudes, also iu California, 



