vated dry fields. Cattle like this
grass.

[Illustration: Fig. 102.--Panicum repens.

1. Full plant; 2. a portion of the leaf and ligule.]

=Panicum repens, _L._=

This is a perennial glaucous grass with stoloniferous and rhizomiferous
stems bearing ordinary erect leafy branches, and the branches come out
piercing through the leaf-sheath (extravaginal).

Stems are numerous, stiff and erect, 1/2 to 3 feet in length, glabrous,
covered below by brownish or whitish scale-leaves, and above with
densely distichous leaves.

The _leaf-sheath_ is firm, distinctly striate, glabrous, margins ciliate
on both sides up to the point of overlapping and then the outer margin
alone ciliate. The _ligule_ is a short thin membrane with very short
cilia on the free margin. The _nodes_ are glabrous.

The _leaf-blade_ is glaucous, narrow, lanceolate, thinly coriaceous,
acuminate with a hardened tip, 1 to 7 or 9 inches long, 1/2 to 1/4 inch
broad, flat or involute when slightly faded, with a few distantly
scattered hairs above, especially towards the lower portion of the blade
when young, and becoming glabrous later, glabrous on the lower surface,
margin is finely serrate and with a few cilia towards the base, some
hairs being tubercle-based; base of the blade is rounded or cordate,
midrib is prominent and keeled.

[Illustration: Fig. 103.--Panicum repens.

1. Spike; 2 and 3. front and back view of a spikelet; 4, 5 and 6. first,
second and third glumes; 7. palea of the third glume; 8 and 9. fourth
glume and its palea; 10. lodicules, stamens and ovary; 11. leaf showing
ligule.]

The _inflorescence_ is a panicle, contracted and not much exserted from
the topmost leaf-sheath, 3 to 8 inches long, branches are usually many,
erect, the lower being 2 to 5 inches long, slender, angular and
scaberulous.

The _spikelets_ are glabrous, erect, pale or pale green, sometimes
purplish also on one side, ovate-oblong or oblong-lanceolate, acute, 1/8
inch, pedicels are long with cupular tips.

There are four _glumes_ in the spikelet. The _first glume_ is hyaline,
broadly ovate, rounded and shortly acute or subacute, indistinctly 3- to
5-nerved or nerveless, less than one-third of the height of the third
glume. The _second glume_ is membranous, ovate-lanceolate acute, 7- to
9-nerved. The _third glume_ is equal to and broader than the second,
always paleate and with three stamens and 9-nerved; _palea_ is hyaline,
oblong, obtuse or subacute, margi