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occurrence in loose soils, springing up about stack-yards and waste 
ground, and on poor exhausted land that has been subjected to 
over-cropping. Of no feeding value, and ought to be treated as a 
noxious weed, to be exterminated from the farmer’s crops. But as 
it is an annual, ripening its seeds very early, this is not perhaps 
readily accomplished. 
Brachypodium sylvaticum. Slender False-Brome-grass. 
In woods and hedgerows not uncommon. Has flat and rather 
broad leaves, fringed about the sheaths; and drooping flower- 
spikes, not unlike those of barley. An inferior grass, worthy only 
of passing notice. 
Triticum caninum. Bearded Wheat-grass. 
Distinguished from the following by its awned flower-spikes, and 
its fibrous roots. In hedgerows and by bushy river banks. By the 
Caldew, Ellen, Eamont, Petteril, etc. 
Triticum repens. Creeping Wheat-grass. 
Of unenviable notoriety as Couch-grass, or “Twitch.” The 
culm and leaves of this grass are not in much esteem as nutrients. 
Like some of the oat-grasses, they contain too much of the bitter 
ingredient. Its roots, however, are more saccharine. And although 
much care is bestowed on their extermination here, they are said 
to be largely used in Italy for feeding horses. I may note in 
passing, that much of what the Cumbrian farmer designates 
“twitch,” consists of the creeping roots of Holcus mollis, Poa 
pratensis, and some of the Bent grasses, as well as those of the 
plant now under notice. 
Triticum junceum. Rushy Sea-wheat-grass. 
Found along the Sea-coast from Silloth to Seascale. This plant 
is of a deep glaucous green hue, and, like the preceding, has 
powerfully creeping roots, with woolly fibres at the joints. Its 
roots, like those of the Common Bent and of the Carex arenaria, are 
of great service in binding together the shifting sands on the 
sea-shore, 
