2. B. hirsùta, Lag. Tufted (8–20´ high), perennial; leaves flat, lance-linear, papillose-hairy or glabrous; spikes 1–4; upper empty glume hispid with strong bristles from dark warty glands; flowering glume pubescent, 3-cleft into awl-pointed lobes; sterile flower and its pedicel glabrous, the 3 awns longer than the glumes and fertile flower.—Sandy plains, Ill., Wisc., Minn., and southwestward to Mex.
§ 2. ATHEROPÒGON. Spikes short, numerous in a long and virgate one-sided spike or raceme, spreading or reflexed, each of few (4–12) spikelets; sterile flowers neutral, rudimentary.
3. B. racemòsa, Lag. (Pl. 9, fig. 1, 2.) Culms tufted from perennial rootstocks (1–3° high); sheaths often hairy; leaves narrow; spikes ½´ or less in length, nearly sessile, 20–60 in number in a loose general spike (8–15´ long); flowers scabrous; glume of the fertile with 3 short awl pointed teeth; sterile flower reduced to a single small awn, or mostly to 3 awns shorter than the fertile flower, and 1 or 2 small or minute scales. (B. curtipendula, Gray.)—Dry hills and plains, southern N. Y. to Minn., and south to Tex. and Mex. July–Sept.—Passes by transitions into var. aristòsa, with spikes shorter; sterile flower of a large saccate glume, awned at the 2-cleft tip and from the lateral nerves, the middle awn exserted, and with a rudiment of a palet.—Ill. (Geyer), and southward.
47. ELEUSÌNE, Gaertn. Crab-Grass. Yard-Grass. ([Pl. 9.])
Spikelets 2–6-flowered, with a terminal imperfect flower or naked rudiment, closely imbricate-spiked on one side of a flattish rhachis; the spikes digitate. Glumes membranaceous, shorter than the flowers; flowering glume and palet awnless, the glume ovate, keeled, larger than the palet. Stamens 3. Pericarp (utricle) containing a loose wrinkled seed.—Low annuals, with flat leaves, and flowers much as in Poa. (Name from Ἐλευσίν, the town where Ceres, the goddess of harvests, was worshipped.)
E. Índica, Gaertn. (Dog's-tail or Wire Grass.) (Pl. 9, fig. 1–6.) Culms ascending, flattened; spikes 2–5 (about 2´ long, greenish); glumes pointless; terminal flower a mere rudiment.—Yards, etc., chiefly southward. (Nat. from Ind.?)
E. Ægyptìaca, Pers. (Pl. 9, fig. 1–4, as Dactyloctenium.) Culms often creeping at base; leaves ciliate at base; spikes 4–5; lower glume awned and the flowering one pointed. (Dactyloctenium Ægyptiacum, Willd.)—Cultivated fields and yards, Va., Ill., and southward. (Adv. from Afr.?)
48. LEPTÓCHLOA, Beauv. ([Pl. 16.])
Spikelets 3–many-flowered (the uppermost flower imperfect), loosely spiked on one side of a long filiform rhachis; the spikes racemed. Glumes menbranaceous, keeled, rarely awned, nearly equal; flowering glume 3-nerved, sometimes simply awned, larger than the palet. Stamens 2 or 3. Seed closely enclosed.—Ours annuals. Leaves flat. (Name composed of λεπτός, slender, and χλόα, grass, from the long attenuated spikes.)
1. L. mucronàta, Kunth. Sheaths hairy; spikes numerous (20–40, 2–4´ in length), in a long panicle-like raceme; spikelets small; glumes more or less mucronate, nearly equalling or exceeding the 3–4 awnless flowers.—Fields, Va. to Ill., Mo., and southward. Aug.