REPORT OF THE BOTANIST. 355 



decumbent stems, shorter leaves, shorter and narrower panicle, with 

 fewer branches. It forms a looser turf, but has a lirm hold by means of 

 its creeping rhizoma. 



Very contradictory accounts have been given as to its agricultural 

 value, some denouncing it as worthless and others speaking well of it. 

 Hon. J. S. Gould says, respecting it : 



It ia certain that cows that feed upou it both in pasture and in hay give more milk 

 and keep iu better condition than when fed on any other grass. Horses fed on this 

 hay will do as well as when fed on timothy hay and oats combined. 



(See Plate XIV.) 



AVENA STRIATA—Wild Oat grass. 



This grass grows on rocky hills in New England and New York. The 

 culms are about 2 feet high, smooth and slender. The leaves are nar- 

 row, and 4 to 6 inches long ; the panicle is slender and drooping ; the 

 upper 2 or 3 branches single, undivided, and short-pediceled ; the lower 

 branches in twos- or threes, with longer pedicels. The upper branches 

 have each only a single spikelet, which is ^ to f inch long, and 3 to 6 

 flowered. The glumes are much shorter than the flowers, thin, scarious 

 margined, purplish, and acute. Each of the flowers has a short tuft of 

 hairs at the base. The lower palet is 7 nerved, 4 lines long, with a 

 sharply 2-toothed ai)ex, just below which rises a slender bent awn. The 

 upper palet is acute, shorter than the lower, with two marginal fringed 

 nerves. 



This grass belongs to the same genus as the cultivated oats, which is 

 Avena sativa. Its range is to the northward, beijig addicted to a cool 

 elevated country. Its productiveness and value for " agricultural pur- 

 poses has not been tested. (See Plate XV.) 



Danthonia spicata— Spiked Wild Oat grass. 



This grass grows in smaU clumps on barren hills or in poor clay lands. 

 The leaves are mostly in a tuft near the ground, short, narrow, and cm-led 

 in dry weather. The culms are 1.^ to 2 feet high, erect and slender. The 

 panicle is only an inch or two long, mostly simple, and of 4 to 7 spike- 

 lets, with very short pedicels. It is a very poor grass. Hon. J. S. Gould 

 says : 



As it will grow on hnrd clay lands where nothing else will, it might be worth while 

 to sow its seed on such lands, ae it is certainly better than nothing, but the better plan 

 is to manure the soil so that it will produce the richer graesoa. 



(See Plate XVI.) 



Danthonia compressa— Compressed Oat grass. 



This species was discovered and described in 1868 by Mr. C. F. Aus- 

 tin. It grows in Pennsylvania, New York, and New England. Mr. C. 

 G. Pringle sends it from Vermont, growing on dry hillocks along the 

 Waterbury Eiver. It also grows on the summit of the Eoan Mountain, 

 North Carolma, over large areas, and furnishes good summer pasturage. 

 Probably it occurs on tiie other mountains of the Alleghany Eange. It 

 differs from the preceding species in forming a compact sod, by having 

 more numerous and larger leaves, by a longer and more spreading pani- 

 cle, and by the two long, slender teeth on each side of the awn of the 

 flowers. (See Plate XVU.) 



