University of California Publications in Agricultural Sciences [Vol.3 



In 188:; I received twenty-one packets of seeds from Italy. These I put 

 in the nursery. All germinated, but the frost killed all except this wonderful 

 grass, Phalaris commutata. In two years it had taken possession of nearly the 

 whole plot of ground in the nursery from the seed self-sown. 



It is a perennial. We had to remove the grass, so we dumped the root-clumps 

 in a cornei- on hard ground, but it still grew to five feet in height. This was 

 during the drouth and frost, and although it was cut it grew again. 



Mv. Harding also concludes with the statement that it was dis- 

 tributed by him to all the Colonies, Africa, and even Italy. As will 

 be pointed out later, neither Phalaris bulbosa nor Phalaris commutata 

 is the correcl scientific name for this grass, as those names belong to 

 other and distinct species. 



The seed secured from South Africa under the name of Phalaris 

 bulbosa proved to be a strong perennial and to be pure, but not true 

 to name. In the same year we planted a twentieth-acre plot with seed 

 also called Phalaris bulbosa secured from seedsmen in Australia. It 

 proved for the most part to be an annual Phalaris and not the same 

 species as that from South Africa, although received under the same 

 name. That there were a few seeds in this lot of the perennial species 

 corresponding exactly to the grass from South Africa was evident, as 

 some fifteen or twenty plants in the plot sown to the Australian seed 

 lived throughout the next winter and summer, finally forming strong 

 clumps. 



The following year I noticed a sack of seed exhibited by the New 

 Zealand Government at the Panama Pacific International Exposition. 

 This, too, was labeled Phalaris bulbosa. The seed was so similar in 

 appearance to the South African lot that at the close of the Expo- 

 sition we arranged for its purchase. When grown, however, it proved 

 to be an annual and not the desirable perennial grass called Phalaris 

 bulbosa as received from South Africa. 



A large number of packets from this sack were secured with per- 

 mission from the New Zealand authorities by representatives of many 

 experiment stations and by the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture. We desire simply to call attention to this to avoid further 

 • •on fusion and to make plain the fact that Phalaris bulbosa as dis- 

 tributed at the Exposition is not the same as the perennial Phalaris 

 bulbosa I f) from South Africa. It is the latter grass that we desire 

 to introduce into California, as the annual species do not offer any 

 especial characteristics that would make them any more valuable 

 cither as pasture or hay tlian the cereal hays now so extensively and 



