CULTIVATED GRAINS AND GRASSES 255 



Orchard grass (Dactylis glomerata). This curious and very 

 striking grass, grown but rarely, is a native of Europe, but is 

 now found, according to Beal, 1 in North Africa, India, and 

 North America. It is widely scattered but never popular, largely 

 because of its bunchy habit of growth, its coarse stem and leaf, 

 and its habit of crowding out other grasses but failing to com- 

 pletely occupy the ground itself. It ripens with clover, and be- 

 cause of its habit last mentioned it is better grown with that crop 

 than grown alone. 



The Festucas. This useful genus of grasses, too little known 

 by American farmers, covers some eighty species growing wild 

 in the cooler regions of the Old World. The most common 

 and well-known species are the large Festuca elatior, or tall 

 fescue (pronounced fes'ktl), making excellent hay as well as 

 pasture ; Festuca pratensis, or meadow fescue, much like the 

 above only slightly shorter ; and the little bunchy Festuca ovina, 

 or sheep's fescue, of slight value except that it will grow in 

 shady places, making a better sod in groves than will any other 

 known grass. These grasses are much esteemed in England, 

 but not yet extensively cultivated in this country, where we have 

 scarcely commenced to realize the variety and value of many 

 native grasses, not to mention the less-known introduced sorts. 

 Neither timothy, blue grass, redtop, orchard grass, nor festuca 

 is mentioned by Candolle in his history of the origin of our cul- 

 tivated plants. This must have been clearly an oversight, as 

 they were all in common use long before the date of his writ- 

 ings (1882). The best book on our own grasses, native and cul- 

 tivated, is "Grasses of North America," by Dr. W. J. Beal of 

 Michigan Agricultural College. 



Miscellaneous grasses. The list of grasses that have been of 

 use to man, and that have more or less come under cultivation, 

 is too long for even mention here. Some of them, like wheat, 

 oats, and sugar cane, are as fully domesticated as corn, while 

 others, like the bamboo, are equally useful but rarely cultivated. 



1 " Grasses of North America," p. 109. 



