AGROPYRUM REPENS, BEAUV. 167 



nishes a good deal of gniziug on rather poor land, and grows right 

 along through siimmer, when blue grass will dry out entirely. 

 It is improved by breaking up every three or four 3^ears. and 

 planting a crop 



" I am beginning to believe that in this and Johnson grass, we 

 have for this latitude, for. hay and pasture, two plants that are 

 not excelled by anything that gi'ows in tlio nortli. They do not 

 frateritize witli cotton, so planters are very much afraid of them," 



AGK01'YHU>[, J. (JAKIITN. 



Spikelets many flowered, compressed, sessile, one at each joint 

 of the zigzag rachis, distichous, placed v/itli one side to the rachis, 

 flowers perfect, or the upper ones i;ui)erfect. Empty glumes 

 narrower than the floral glume, few nerved; floral glumes firm, 

 convex on the back, 5-7-nerved, obtuse, acuminate, or awned, 

 the upper one often empty or enclosing an imperfect flower, ■ 

 Palea shorter than the floral glume, 2-keeled. Lodicules, ovate, 

 entire, ciliate. Stamens 3, Stjdes ver}* short, distinct, stigmas 

 feathery, subsessile. Caryopsis oblong, grooved, more or less 

 hairy at the apex, adherent to tlu^ palea or free. Perennials or 

 annuals, with leaves flat or convolute. Spike terminal. 



About twenty species found in temperate climates, 



A. repeiis, Beauv., (Triticuiii repeiis, L.) Quack, Quitch, 

 Quick, Twitch, Couch^, Dog, Scutch, Kye, Durfee, Chandler, 

 Witch, Quake, Squitch, or Fin's Orass or Creeping Wheat. 



— A very variable perennial witli long, creeping rootstocks. 

 Culms 1-4 feet, smooth, glabrous. Leaves flat, sheaths terete, 

 iigule short, spike 2-10 in., straight or curved, spikelets 4-8 fld., 

 f-I in. long, Empt}^ glumes 5-7-nerved, rigid, cuspidate, acute 

 or awned; floral glumes much the same, with an awn nearly its 

 length, or sometimes awnless. 



This grass is well known iu most of the older ])ortions of our 



Fig. 7<i.—Agroptir^um reperis (Quack grass) ; part cf a plant ; a, lower empty glume ; 

 \ upper empty glume ; c, floral glume ; d, palea ; e, lodicules, including the base oi 

 stamens, an abortive ovary and the feathery stigmas. — (Sud worth.) 



