184 HOHTLS CRAMINKIS WOB I, UN EN S IS. 



It flowers about the first week of July, and the seed is 

 ripe about the end of the same month. 



AGR9STIS vulgaris mulica. Common Bent, Fine Bent- 

 orass. 



Agrostis aretiaria, agrostis capillaris, Hudson. Agrostis 



vulgaris. 

 Specific character: Panicle spreading, with divaricated 



capillary branches ; calyx valves nearly equal ; stem 



erect; stipula abrupt, very short. 

 Experiments. — At the time of flowering, the produce from 



a siliceous sandy soil is 10/209 lbs. per acre. 

 The produce of latter-math is 2,722 lbs. per acre. 



A given space of the above sandy soil, and another of a 

 clayey loam, were sown with the seeds of this grass on the 

 20th of May, 1813. The seeds vegetated, and the produce 

 was cut in the month of August following. The seeds of 

 the qreeping-rooted bent (agrostis alba), and of the larger 

 creeping-bent or florin Cagrostis stolonij'era, var. latijolia), 

 were likewise sown at the same time, and treated under the 

 same circumstances. 



The florin, in this experiment, is less productive on a 

 clayey soil than the creeping-rooted bent, and even much 

 less on the clayey than on the sandy soil ; however, though 

 its progress be at flrst slower on the clayey loam, yet, in the 

 second year, the produce from the clayey loam was exactly 

 triple the weight of that from the sandy soil. The florin 

 aflforded the greatest produce on the second and third years; 

 after this, unless top-dressings are applied, the produce de- 

 clines. On peat soils, this eflPect of the fibrous surface roots 

 is much less. The common bent is one of the earliest of 

 the bent grasses ; in this respect it is superior to every other 

 of this family, but inferior to several of them in the quantity 

 of produce it affords and the nutritive matter it contains. 

 It is the most common grass on natural sandy pastures ; 

 and even on more tenacious soils, that are elevated and ex- 

 posed, it is frequent. 



It flowers from the third week of June till the second 

 week of .f uly, and the seed is ripe the beginning of August. 



