THE AGRICULTURAL GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 77 



inches long, open and drooping ; the npper branches are single and un- 

 divided, each with a single spikelet, the lower branches are in twos or 

 threes, with longer pedicels, and sometimes having two or three spikelets. 

 The spikelets are one-half to three-fourths Inchlong, and from three to six 

 flowered. The outer glumes are much shorter than the spikelet, thin, 

 scarious on the margins, acute, and purplish. Each of the flowers has 

 a short tuft of hairs at the base. The lower palet is four lines long, 

 seven nerved, sharx)ly two toothed at the ai)ex, just below which rises 

 a slender bent awn. All the flowers of the spikelet are alike, except 

 that the upper ones are smaller. This grass is related to the cultivated 

 oats. Its range is to the northward, being addicted to a cool, elevated 

 country. Its productiveness and value for agricultural purposes has not 

 been tested. (Plate 69.) 



Arena 2)ratensis and Arena Jiavescens are two species of Europe, which 

 have been cultivated to some extent in that country, but are little 

 known here. 



AIIEHENATHEEU3I AVENACEUii. (Evergreen grass, Tall oat grass, 



Meadow oat grass.) 

 A perennial grass of strong, vigorous growth, introduced from Europe, 

 and sparingly cultivated. Culms, 2 to 4 feet high, erect, rather stout, 

 with four or five leaves each ; the sheaths smooth, the leaves somewhat 

 rough on the upper surface, 6 to 10 inches long, and about three lines 

 wide, gradually pointed. The panicle is loose, rather contracted, from 

 & to 10 inches long, and rather drooping ; the branches very unequal, 

 mostly in fives, the longer ones 1 to 3 inches, and subdivided from about 

 the middle ; the smaller branches very short, all rather full-flowered. 

 The spikelets are mostly on sliort pedicels. The structure of the flowers 

 is similar to that of common oats, but different in several particulars. 

 The spikelets consist of two flowers, the lower of which is staminate 

 only, the upper one both staminate and i^istillate ; the outer glomes are 

 thin and transparent, the upper one about four lines long and three- 

 nerved, the lower one nearly three lines long and one-nerved. The 

 flowering glume is about four lines long, green, strongly seven-nerved, 

 lanceolate, acute, hairy at base, roughish, and in the lower flower gives 

 rise on the back below the middle to a long, twisted, and bent awn; in 

 the upper flower the glume is merely bristle-pointed near the apex. 

 The palet is thin and transparent, linear, and two-toothed. This grass 

 is much valued on the continent of Europe. The herbage is very pro- 

 ductive and its growth rapid. When growing with other grasses cattle 

 and sheep eat it very well, but do not like to be confined to it exclu- 

 sively. 



Mr. Thomas Brigden, of South Lowell, Ala., says, respecting this 

 grass : 



We obtained seed from the Tennessee Valley under the name of evergreen grass, and 

 it appt-ars at the present time to be by far the most valuable kind that we have ex- 



