102 THE AGRICULTURAL GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Hon. J. S. Gould says : 



It is usually found on high elevations, in swampy lands, and by the margins of 

 streams. It is very apt to grow in clumps. It is one of the most beautiful of grasses^ 

 and is exeeediDgly ornamental in grass boquets. It is abundant on the Catskill and 

 White Mountains and on the Raquette waters of the Adirondacks. Cattle eat it very 

 well in pasture and when made into hay. 



(Plate 106.) 



Glyceria fluitans. (Floating Manna grass.) 



This species grows in shallow water on the margins of lakes, ponds^ 

 and sluggish streams. Its cuhns are usually 3 to 4 feet high, rather 

 thick and succulent and quite leafy. The leaves are 4 to 9 inches long 

 and three to four lines wide. The panicle is often a foot long, very narrow^ 

 tlie short distant branches mostly in twos or threes, 1 or 2 inches longv 

 erect and close, each having usually two to four spikelets. The spike- 

 lets are half an inch to three-quarters of an inch in length, rath^ cylin- 

 drical and nearly of the same thickness throughout, seven to thirteen 

 flowered. The outer glumes are membranaceous and one-nerved. The 

 flowering glumes are about two lines long, oblong, convex on theroughish 

 back, rather thick, with a thin, scarious entire apex. The palets are as- 

 long or sometimes longer than their glumes and minutely two-toothed. 



Hon. J. S. Gould says : 



This grass is found growing in shallow water, overflowed meadows and wet woods, 

 but will bear cultivation on moderately dry grounds. Schreber says that it is culti- 

 vated in several parts of Germany for the sake of the seeds, which form the manna 

 crop of the shops, and are considered a great delicacy in soups and gruels. When 

 ground into meal they make bread very little inferior to that made from wheat. In 

 Poland large quantities of the seeds are obtained for culinary purposes. All graniv- 

 erous birds are exceedingly fond of these seeds. Trout and indeed most fish are very 

 fond of them ; wherever it grows over the banks of streamsthe trout are always found 

 in great numbers waiting to catch every seed that falls. There is a great difference 

 of opinion among agricultural writers with respect to the fondness of animals for the- 

 leaves and culms of this grass. We have often seen the ends of the leaves cropped by 

 cattle, but have never seen the culms or root-leaves touched by them. On the other 

 hand, reliable writers have asserted that cattle, horses, and swine were alike fond 

 of it. 



Festuca. 



This is a large genus, of which we have some fifteen native and 

 several introduced species. The genus is characterized as follows : 

 Spikelets, three to many flowered, variously panicled, pedicellate ; 

 axis of the spikelets not hairy, outer glumes unequal, shorter than the 

 flowers, the lower one-nerved and the upper three-nerved, narrow,, 

 keeled, acute; flowering glumes membranaceous, chartaceous, or sub- 

 coriaceous, narrow, rounded on the back (not keeled), more or less dis- 

 tinctly three to five nerved, acute, or commonly tapering into a straight 

 awn, rarely obtusish; palet narrow, flat, prominently two-nerved or two- 

 keeled. 



