Illustrated Descriptions of the Grasses 



or with their backs to the stem, while in Couch-grass the spikelets 



are closely placed with their sides against the axis of the spike. 

 Couch-grass grows with the '" 



energy of the 



fabled hydra, 



and where one 



of the dark green stems is cut, half 



a dozen rise to take its place. This 



grass and the Johnson Grass of the 



South have the most extensive system of 



creeping or, more expressively, running 



rootstocks of any of the inland grasses. 



The strong, white subterranean stems of 



Couch-grass form a network and send off 



innumerable sharp-pointed shoots, which in 



the garden often pierce roots and tubers and 



seem to prefer to grow through any permeable 



object rather than to turn aside. This grass 



is the worst enemy of the farmer among his 



cultivated acres, as each breaking of the 



ground's surface by sharp-edged tools serves 



only to cut and scatter the roots, each frag- 

 ment of which, seemingly, "hath in it a Prop- 

 ertie and Spirit, hastily to get up and spread." 

 This quality of the plant suggested to Charles 

 Dudley Warner while spending his "Summer 

 in a Garden" the idea of offering Couch-grass 

 to the clergy as an example of total depravity, 

 yet insatiable ambition seems the chief charac- 

 teristic of this plant, whose merits are recog- 

 nized in its tenacity of life through drouth 

 and on sandy soils, as well as in the nutritious 

 hay yielded, while the long rootstocks are 

 valuable in binding the loose soil of railway 

 embankments. On pasture lands of the North- 

 western States other species of the genus furnish 

 an important part of the native grasses. 



Bearded Wheat-grass {Agropyron canhium), 

 less common in the East, is unlike Couch- 

 grass in the absence of rootstocks, in the 



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Couch-grass 

 Agropyron repens 



