TJie Natiwal History of British Grasses. 517 



Agricultural forms. — Fine bent : — " 



1. A. vulgaris — head of flowers spreading, exceedingly light 

 and elegant ; stolons more or less creeping, whole plant smootli. 

 Hab., upland meadows and pastures. — P. 



2. A. vulgaris, var. alha — marsh-bent — head of flowers larger 

 and more compact ; culms rooting at tlie lower nodes, and send- 

 ing out stolons ; whole plant more or less rough, and stouter thaa 

 the preceding. Hab., ditches and v/et places. — P. 



3. A. vulgaris, var. stolonifera — agrarian bent — head of flowers 

 much congested ; stolons above, rhizomes creeping below, the 

 ground. Hab., stony places ; mostly an accompaniment of 

 agrarian conditions. — P. 



Tliese three foi'ms ai"e proved to belong to the same species*,, 

 as from cultivation we have obtained the following results : — 



A plot of A. vulgaris, sown in 1855, presents the usual deli- 

 cate form of this grass, with a tolerable admixture of both stoloni- 

 fera and alba. 



A plot of A. stolonifera. The general plant is A. vulgaris, 

 having a iaw stolonifera intermixed, which latter present more of 

 the true alba form than the congested flowers and stolon growth 

 of its proper type. These experiments, though they tend to 

 confirm their specific identity, by no means confound the different 

 agricultural value of the three forms ; and indeed, agricultureilly, 

 varieties themselves are of equal value with true species. 



These varieties mark different agricultural conditions ; and 

 though neither of them are of great use as pasture-grasses under 

 ordinary circumstances, yet the peculiar method of growth of 

 the A. stolonifera, united Avith the fact of the great increase both 

 in quantity and quality of its herbage under irrigation, point it 

 out as a grass well adapted to form part of the produce of an 

 irrigated meadow. As an agrarian, however, it is usually known 

 by the name of squitch ; and its small, wiry rhizome renders it 

 exceedingly difficult to eradicate, especially from brasliy land, 

 Avhich is its favourite habitat, and in which it spreads so fast, 

 that a summer fallow becomes so literally choked up with it as 

 almost to exclude every other form of weed, if we except Triti- 

 cum repens — common couch — which is its usual congener. 



** Spikcldii with mostly two 2'cr/cct Jlorefs. 

 ) MOLINIA — panicle contracted, not spicate ; glumes acute, 



][f. cmrulca — purple melic-grass. A species remarkable for 

 its solid stem and few nodes ; it has long wiry roots, by which it 

 mats together the humus soils of peats and moors ; it is of no 

 value in pasture, Init is always an index of want of draining 

 and general amelioration, under which it inunediately disappears. 

 —P. 



