THE AGRICULTURAL GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 45 



linear-lanceolate, strongly compressed, and keeled, four or five lines long, 

 the margins membrauaceoos, the middle thick, and the keel scabrous ; 

 the lower one is less than halt as long as the ui)per, narrow and thin. 

 The llowering glume is about four lines h>ng, lanceolate, obtuse, mem- 

 branaceous, compressed, and with a thick midrib which is roughishnear 

 the apex; the palet Is thio, as broad and somewhat longer than its 

 glume. This grass forms a large portion of the salt marshes near the 

 sea-coast. It makes an inferior hay, called salt hay, which is worth 

 about half as much per ton as timothy and red-top. (Plate 20.) 



Tripsacum DACTYLOiDES. (Gama-grass, sesame-grass.) 



A tall, perennial grass, found both North and South, with solid culms 

 from thick creeping rhizomes, broad and fiat leaves, and with fiower 

 spikes 4 to 8 inches long produced from the side joints and from the 

 top, either singly or two or three together. The upper portion of these 

 spikes is staminate or male, and the lower portion pistillate and pro- 

 ducing the seeds. The upper or male portion of the spikes drops off 

 after flowering. The fertile portion is much thickened, somewhat flat- 

 tened and angled, and the fertile flowers and seeds are deeply embedded 

 in it. This part of the spike at maturity easily breaks up into short 

 joints. The staminate flowers are three to four lines long, sessile, and 

 in twos at each joint of the axis. Each spikelet is two flowered, the 

 outer glumes are somewhat thick and coriaceous, oblong, the lower one 

 obscurely many-nerved, the upper one of thinner texture, boat-shaped, 

 five-nerved and scarious-margined; the flowering glumes and palets 

 are equal in length to the outer glumes, very thin and membranaceous, 

 awnless; the anthers open by two pores at the apex. The pistillate 

 spikelets are single at each joint; also two-flowered ; the outer empty 

 glume is ovate, cartilaginous- thickened, the inner glume much thinner, 

 and pointed. One of the flowers is neutral, the other fertile, the flow- 

 ering glumes and palets very thin and scarious. The stigmas are long, 

 purple, and feathered. Mr. Howard, in the Manual of Grasses for the 

 South, says: 



This is a native of the South, from the mountains to the coast. The seed stem 

 was up to the height of 5 to 7 feet. The seeds break off from the stem as if from a 

 joint, a single seed at a time. The leaves resemble those of corn. When cut before 

 the seed stems shoot up they make a coarse but nutritious hay. It may be cut three 

 or four times during the season. The quantit.y of forage whic'i can be made from it 

 is enormous. Both cattle and horses are fond of the hay. Tlie roots are almost as 

 large and strong as caue roots. It would require a team of four to six oxen to plow 

 it up. It can, however, be easily killed by close grazing, and the mass of dead roots 

 would certainly enrich the land. As the seeds of this grass vegetate with uncertainty, 

 it is usually propagated by setting out slips of the roots about 2 feet apart each way. 

 On rich land the tussocks will soon meet. In the absence of the finer hay grasses this 

 will be found an abundant and excellent substitute. The hay made from it is very 

 like corn fodder, is quite equal to it in value, and may be saved at a tithe of the ex- 

 pense. 



This account is concurred in by other writers. (Plate 21.) 



