arcnaria, Link. Beach-grass. (Fig. 537.) A coarse perennial with rigid culms, long, tough, involute leaves and extensively creeping root stocks, native along the sandy shores of the Great Lakes and on the Atlantic coast as far south as North Carolina. Much used in Europe to bind shift ing sand, and recently used for the same purpose in this country, notably at Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, and on Cape Cod. Propagated by trans planting young plants. [For further information, see United States Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry, Bulletins Nos. 57 and 65.] 18. Agrostis (Greek name for a kind of grass). A genus of grasses including about one hundred species, mostly perennials, distributed over the entire globe in the cooler parts. Spikelets one-flow ered, the lemma shorter than the glumes and often awned from the back ; palea small or wanting. In florescence a panicle, varying from contracted and spike-like to very open and diffuse.
alba, Linn. Red- top. (Fig. 538.) An upright perennial with short rootstocks and moderately open and spreading panicles. Palea one-half to two-thirds as long as the lemma. This species is variable. One form (var. vulgartis, Thurb.; A. cut garbs, With.) is more tufted and has more delicate culms and panicles. This form is more frequently found in lawns and open woods. It is sometimes awned. A variety of A. alba, with more contracted panicles and with extensive stolons, is cultivated as a lawn grass under the name of creeping bent. It is especially useful in the Middle Atlantic states, where it is too warm for blue-grass and too cold for Bermuda. In England, A. alba is called Fiorin and ben t-grass ; in parts of the South it is known as Herd's grass.
cantina, Linn. Rhode Island Bent. (Fig. 539.) A delicate perennial resembling the smaller awned forms of A. alba vulgaris, but the palea is want ing. Much of the seed sold under this name is A. alba vulgaris.
19. Cynodon (Greek, dog - tooth). A genus of four species of perennial grasses in the tropical regions of both hemispheres. Spikelets one-flow ered, awnless, sessile, in two rows along one side of a slender axis, forming unilateral spikes which are digitate at the apex of the culm.
Dartylon, Pers. (Capriola Dartylon, Kuntze). Ber muda-grass. (Fig. 540.) Stems extensively creeping and rooting at the nodes, or in cultivated or sandy soil forming stout flattened rootstocks. On poor soil the leaves are short and the growth low, but in moist, rich soil it may grow tall enough for hay. Very common in the southern states, where it is the most valuable grass for summer pastures. It is
also useful for lawns and for holding embankments. In cultivated fields it becomes a pestiferous weed, and is then often called wire-grass or joint-grass.
20. Holcus (Greek name for a kind of grass). A genus of annual or perennial grasses containing eight species in Europe and Africa. Spikelets two flowered, the lower perfect and awnless, the upper staminate and awned. Inflorescence a dense termi nal panicle.
lanatus, Linn. Velvet-grass. (Fig. 541.) Velvety pubescent throughout. It is generally considered a weed, and finds use as a forage crop only in parts of the Pacific northwest, notably about Puget Sound.
21. Avena (Latin name for oats). A genus of about fifty species of grasses in the temperate regions of the Old World, a few in America. Spikelets large, two- to six-flowered ; glumes membranous, longer than the flowers ; lemma with a dorsal, twisted awn (or in cultivated forms straight or absent). Inflorescence a spreading panicle.
saliva, Linn. Oat. (Fig. 542.) An annual with nodding spikelets and many-nerved glumes, the awns of the persistent lem mas straight or wanting. A common grain thought by many to have originated from the wild oat (A. fatua, Linn., Fig. 543), which differs in having a geniculate and twisted awn, and a deciduous lemma more or less covered with red-brown hairs. The wild oat is abundantly intro duced on the Pacific coast.
A variety (A. fatua gla brata, Peterm.) is cut for hay in Washington, and this and an allied species (A. barbata, Brot.) are used for pasturage in Cali fornia. [See Oats.] 2 2 . Dactylis (Greek, finger). A genus of grasses com prising one species or several closely allied species, native in the northern part of the Old World. Spikelets three to five-flowered, in dense fasci cles, these forming a glomerate panicle, spreading in flower but contracted in fruit. Glumes one to three-nerved, the lemma five nerved.
glomerata, Linn. Orchard grass. (Fig. 544.) Commonly cultivated in the northern states for forage and extensively es caped in waste places. It is of considerable importance in Ken tucky, southern Indiana, Ten nessee, North Carolina, western Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland.
23. Cynosurus (Greek, dog's tail). A genus of four or five species of grasses found in the north temperate regions of the Old World. Spikelets of two forms in small fascicles, these forming a dense, spike-like pan icle ; terminal spikelets of the fascicles two- to four-flowered, perfect, the lower spikelet sterile, consisting of many • linear one-nerved glumes.