A. CANINA, L. BROWN BENT -GRASS. 151 



florin does not seem to be as large, vigorous, productive, or as 

 valuable as our own native red top. 



A^rostis canina, L. Brown Bent, Rhode Island Bent, Fine 

 Top, Furze Top, Burden's Grass. A very variable perennial, 

 much like small plants of A vulgaris. Culms 6-18 in. hi., stolo- 

 niferous. Ligule oblong. Panicle 2-4 in., contracting in fruit, 

 usually purple. Floral glumes shorter than the empty, 5-nerved ; 

 awned on the back, near the middle or below. Palea minute or 

 none. 



Widely distributed in cool regions. 



J. B. Alcott says: " There is as much difference between this 

 and red top as there is between the Tom Thumb pea and the 

 marrowfat. It will make beautiful, close, fine sod upon quite 

 sterile soils. This, red top will not do. It is especially satisfac- 

 tory for lawns, which in strong soils is apt to overgrow." 



It makes very good pasture, though it is too small and grows 

 too closely to afford much of a bite. For fifteen years the writer 

 has watched it in Michigan, on thin soils and on rich soils, on 

 moist land and on dry, sandy land, and he unhesitatingly recom- 

 mends it as one of the very best grasses to mix with June grass 

 for producing a fine lawn. If sown alone, four bushels of seed 

 in the chaff is none too much. 



This grass, with considerable variation, is often found on 

 mountains in Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America. 



A small Agrostis, probably A. vulgaris, of Europe, has been 

 much used for lawns, and by some it has passed for A. canina. 



ALOPECURUS, L. FOX TAIL. 



Spikelets 1-flowered, flat, crowded into a head or cylindrical 

 spike-like panicle, jointed at the apex of the enlarged pedicel, 

 flowers perfect. Glumes 3 or 4, the 2 outer empty, acute, awnless 

 or short awned, often connate below, flat-keeled, the keel ciliate 



FIG. ~~. -1, Plant ot AlopecuruH -pratensds, a little reduced; 2, spikelet; 5, floral 

 (lame. (TrinUfl and Scribner.) 



