GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. 163 



Meadow Oat Grass (Avena pratensis] is a perennial grass, native of the pastures of 

 Great Britain, growing to the height of about eighteen inches. It furnishes a hay of medium 

 quality. Flourishes best on dry soils. Flowers in July. 



The Yellow Oat Grass (Avena flavescens, now generally classified as Trisetum flavescens) 

 can scarcely, perhaps, be regarded as naturalized here. It is a perennial plant of slow growth 

 and medium quality, furnishing a hay containing about 1.79 per cent, of azote or nitrogen; 

 suitable for dry meadows and pastures. It is sometimes regarded as a weed, growing about 

 eighteen inches high. It fails if cultivated alone, but succeeds with other grasses, and is said 

 to be the most useful for fodder, of the oat grasses. It grows best with the crested dog s 

 tail and sweet scented vernal. It contains a larger proportion of bitter extractive than most 

 other grasses, and for that reason is recommended by some English writers as a valuable 

 pasture grass. It flowers in July. 



Tall Meadow Oat Grass, Or Tall Oat Grass (Arrenatherum avenaceum) is the avena 

 elatior of Linnseus. Specific characters: Spikelets open panicled, two-flowered, lower flower 

 staminate, bearing a long bent awn below the middle of the back; leaves flat, acute, roughish 

 on both sides, most on the inner ; panicle leaning slightly on one side, glumes very unequal ; 

 stems from two to three feet high, root perennial, fibrous, sometimes bulbous. It is readily 

 distinguished from other grasses by its having two florets, the lower one having a long awn 

 rising from a little above the base of the outer palea. Introduced. Flowers in June and 

 July. 



This is the Ray grass of France. It produces an abundant supply of foliage, and is val 

 uable either for hay or for pasture, and has been especially recommended for soiling purposes, 

 on account of its early and luxuriant growth. It is often found on the borders of fields and 

 hedges, woods, and pastures, and sometimes very plenty in mowing-lands. After being 

 mown, it shoots up a very thick aftermath, and on this account, partly, is regarded as nearly 

 equal for excellence to the common foxtail (Alopecurus pratensis). 



It grows spontaneously on deep, sandy soils, when once naturalized. It has been culti 

 vated to some extent in New England, and is esteemed by those who know it, mainly for its 

 early, rapid, and late growth, making it very well calculated as a permanent pasture grass. 

 It will succeed on tenacious clover soils. 



Bermuda Grass, Wire Grass ( Cynodon dactylon). A low, creeping perennial grass, 

 with abundant short leaves at the base, sparingly sending up slender, nearly leafless flower. 

 stalks, with 3 to 5 slender, diverging spikes at the summit. The flowers are arranged in a 

 close row along one side of these spikes. The spikelets are one-flowered, with a short pedi- 

 celled rudiment of a second flower. The glumes are pointed, but without awns; the lower 

 palet boat-shaped. 



This grass is a native of Europe, and is abundantly naturalized in many other countries. 

 It is said to be a common pasture grass in the West Indies. In the Southern States it has 

 long been the chief reliance for pasture, and has been extravagantly praised by some, and 

 cursed by others, who find it difficult to eradicate it when once established. Mr. C. Mohr 

 speaks of it thus: 



&quot; It thrives in the arid, barren drift-sands of the sea-shore, covering them by its long, 

 creeping stems, whose deeply-penetrating roots impart firmness to a soil, which else would 

 remain devoid of vegetation. It is esteemed one of the most valuable of our grasses, either 

 in the pasture or cured as hay.&quot; 



Col. T. C. Howard, of Georgia, says: &quot;The desideratum to the South is a grass that is 



perennial, nutritious, and adapted to the climate. &quot;While we have grasses and forage plants 



that do well when nursed, we have few that live and thrive here as in their native habitat. 



The Bermuda and crab grasses are at home in the South. They not only live, but live in 



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