424 PHYSIOLOGY AT THE FARM. 



esculentus has corms used for food, and made a substitute for 

 coffee. C. bidbosus has also corms fit for food. 



Graminece, Grass order. A ndropogon saccharatum, shaloo, 

 is cultivated in India as a nutritious grain. A. sorghum, see 

 p. 476. 



Bambusa arundinacea, Bamboo. The young shoots are 

 used for pickles, and even boiled and eaten for table vegetables, 

 or made into sweetmeats. The seeds of some species are fer- 

 mented for a drink. 



Dactylis ccespitosa, the Tussac grass of the Falkland 

 Islands, has been cultivated with some success in the Shetland 

 Islands, and in the island of Lewis. 



Gynerium saccharoides yields sugar in Brazil. Gynerium 

 argenteum is the pampas grass of the Cordillera. 



Paspalus virgatus, Lamaha grass, in Demerara, is excellent 

 fodder. 



Plialaris canariensis produces the grain called canary-seed 

 for birds. 



Saccharum officinarum, the sugar-cane. 

 Zizania aquatica supplies the swamp-rice of Canada. 

 Forage and Natural Pasture Grasses. Agrostis. Of the 

 genera of grasses in which lie those which have any claim to 

 culture as forage plants, Agrostis is first in alphabetic order. 

 The species of this genus are popularly termed bent grasses. 

 The Agrostis alba and the Agrostis vulgaris are the only 

 species of this genus which deserve notice. The Agrostis alba 

 is plainly the same as what has been called Agrostis stolonifera, 

 marsh creeping bent-grass, or florin-grass. 



The Agrostis alba is considered by farmers a troublesome 

 weed, as impoverishing the soil by its long creeping roots. It is 

 a creeping- stemmed perennial, flowering in July and August, 

 and at the end of the latter month its seeds usually ripen. It 

 varies somewhat according to the situation in which it grows. 



