OTHER IMPORTANT FORAGE GRASSES 79 



Description. An erect perennial, 1 to 3 feet tall, or 

 sometimes taller in favorable localities, the base often 

 decumbent, producing creeping rootstocks; sheaths 

 smooth; blades flat, rough on both surfaces, mostly 4 to 

 8 inches long, narrowed into a long sharp point, the 

 ligule thin, pointed, as much as 6 mm. long (1/4 inch); 

 panicle usually 4 to 8 inches long, broadest near the 

 bottom and narrowing toward the top, pale or often 

 purplish or brownish, the branches in whorls, horizontally 

 spreading or somewhat ascending, some of the branches 

 naked below, others shorter and flower-bearing mostly 

 to the base, the upper branches scattered and more 

 ascending, all rough to the touch. After flowering the 

 panicle may partially close. 



Details of the Spikelet. Spikelets one-flowered, small, 

 only 2 to 3 mm. long (2/25 to 3/25 inch); glumes 2, 

 about equal, gradually narrowed to a sharp point, rough- 

 ened on the keel; lemma a little shorter than the glumes, 

 thin and transparent, rather blunt; palea half to two- 

 thirds as long a$ the lemma and like it in texture. 



Common Names. The usual name is redtop but it is 

 called in some localities, especially in Pennsylvania and 

 the Southern States, Herd's grass. The latter name is 

 sometimes applied to timothy and should, for the sake 

 of precision, be discarded. The name redtop is char- 

 acteristic because in the cultivated form, the panicle is 

 usually purplish or brownish at flowering time though it 

 may become pale or faded at maturity. 



Botanical Name. Agrostis palustris Huds. The ge- 

 nus Agrostis includes a large number of species (about 

 100) found in temperate and cool regions all over the 



