bull-grass

Dere was one Chris'mus long time ago, after Pharoe's daughter found Moses in de bull-grass an 'fo' Christopher Columbus went a-sailin '' round to find dis yeah country, dat ole man Santy gib a Chris'mus to de critters.

This Way to Christmas 1916

The natives called it "bull-grass," but anything more unlike grass I never saw, so we rejected that nomenclature, and dubbed them "green fans."

Andersonville John McElroy 1887

The natives called it "bull-grass," but anything more unlike grass I never saw, so we rejected that nomenclature, and dubbed them "green fans."

Andersonville — Volume 4 John McElroy 1887

There is a kind of grass, called bull-grass, which is very troublesome in rice-fields, as it springs up amongst the rice, and between the rows or "in-steps," and being of singularly rapid growth, would soon choke the rice.

Slave Life in Georgia: A Narrative of the Life, Sufferings, and Escape of John Brown, A Fugitive Slave, Now In England 1854