BOTANICAL DEPARTMENT. 183 



others -want a list which promises well for Missouri, Dakota, Kansas, Indiana, 

 Illinois, or Michigan ; others ask for those most suitable for marshes, the 

 names of which are noted above. 



A man in Illinois is told to try June grass if he desires a grass to keep the 

 banks of a ditch from washing, and at the same time wants one which will not 

 choke the ditch. 



Seeds of June grass are sometimes sent to Germany, where they are sold as 

 Poa triviaUs, rough stalked meadow grass. Some of them come back to 

 Michigan Agricultural College for identification after passing through a seed 

 station in Germany, and one in New England. 



Mixed lawn grasses are beginning to come in since our bulletin was issued 

 stating that June grass and red top were the best and only grasses needed for 

 most lawns. 



Some ask what permanent grasses will thrive best in an orchard or in a 

 grove. Orchard grass and June grass are named for this purpose. 



Grass seeds from this college have been sent for trial to the Agricultural 

 colleges of six other States. 



WHEAT AND CHESS. 



Large numbers of specimens have been sent, and several have been brought 

 by persons to show that wheat will turn to chess. So far, each one has 

 failed in every attempt. In brief, all the cases so far seen can be summed up 

 as follows : A chess root ran into an old hull of wheat, which was pulled up 

 with the chess plant ; bunches, or plants of wheat and chess, were closely inter- 

 woven by the roots and lower stems, but with no connection ; the top part of a 

 chess plant had been pulled oiit, and one of wheat, cut oif, and crowded down 

 in its place ; a panicle of chess had been crowded down into the upper sheath 

 of a plant of wheat ; some small portions of a panicle of chess had been 

 purposely or accidentally broken off and clasped by the chaff of a spike of 

 wheat. 



W. J. BEAL, 

 Agkicultural College, Mich.,) Professor of Botany aud Forestry. 



July 15, 1886. 



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