318 
OHIO BIOLOGICAL SURVEY 
ascending branches, the secondary panicles usually included in the 
sheaths. Spikelets elliptic, pubescent; outer empty glume ^ as 
long as the spikelet. 
In moist ground and thickets. June, July. General. 
54. Leptoloma Chase. Witch-grass. 
Tufted perennial grasses with flat leaves and very diffuse ter¬ 
minal panicles which break away at maturity and become tumble- 
grasses. Spikelets with 1 perfect flower, solitary on long capillary 
pedicels; outer empty glume very minute or wanting, inner empty 
glume 3-nerved, nearly as long as the 5-7-nerved sterile lemma; 
fertile lemma indurated, papillose, with hyaline margin not inrolled; 
lemma of similar texture; grain free, enclosed in the flowering 
glumes. 
1. Leptoloma cognatum (Schultes) Chase. Fall Witch-grass. 
A perennial slender tufted grass with erect or decumbent stems, 1-2 
ft. high, usually much branched at the base, and with a loose panicle 
bearded in the axils, the lower branches at first erect and included 
in the upper sheath but finally exserted and widely spreading. 
Spikelets lanceolate, acuminate, on capillary pedicels; lemma lanceo¬ 
late. 
In dry soil. July-Sept. From the West. Lake County. 
» 
55. Syntherisma Walt. Crab-grass. 
Annual, mostly weedy grasses with branched stems, thin flat 
leaves, and an inflorescence of secund, spike-like racemes which are 
digitate or approximate at the ends of the branches. Spikelets with 
1 perfect flower and a vestige of a second one, lanceolate-elliptic, 
sessile or short pediceled; empty glumes 1-3 nerved, the outer some¬ 
times obsolete; sterile lemma 5-nerved; fertile lemma chartaceous, 
its margins hyaline and not inrolled; palet of similar texture; grain 
free, enclosed in the flowering glumes. 
1. Rachis of the raceme branches with the angles wingless; outer empty glume 
wanting or minute; raceme branches 2-5; stems erect. S. filiforme. 
1. Rachis of the raceme branches with the lateral angles broadly winged; stems 
spreading. 2 
2. Pedicels terete, glabrous or nearly so; outer empty glume wanting or minute; 
raceme branches 2-6. Y. ischaeninm. 
2. Pedicels sharply 3-angled, the angles hispidulous; outer empty glume present, 
small, raceme branches 3-12. S. sanguinale 
1. Syntherisma filiforme (L.) Nash. Slender Crab-grass. A 
slender usually tufted grass with erect stems, 1-4 ft. high, and a 
panicle of 1-5 spike-like racemes. Spikelets elliptic, pubescent; outer 
