AGROPYRUM REPENS, BEATJV. 167 



nishes a good deal of grazing on rather poor land, and grows right 

 along through summer, when "blue grass will dry out entirely. 

 It is improved by breaking up every three or four years, and 

 planting a crop 



" I am beginning to believe that in this and Johnson grass, we 

 have for this latitude, for hay and pasture, two plants that are 

 not excelled by anything that grows in the north. They do not 

 fraternize with cotton, so planters are very much afraid of them." 



AGROPYRUM, J. GAERTN. 



Spikelets many flowered, compressed, sessile, one at each joint 

 of the zigzag rachis, distichous, placed, with one side to the rachis, 

 flowers perfect, or the upper ones imperfect. Empty glumes 

 narrower than the floral glume, few nerved ; floral glumes firm, 

 convex on the hack, 5-7-nerved, obtuse, acuminate, or awned, 

 the upper one often empty or enclosing an imperfect flower. 

 Palea shorter than the floral glume, 2-keeled. Lodicules, ovate, 

 entire, ciliate,, Stamens 3. Styles very short, distinct, stigmas 

 feathery, subsessile. Caryopsis oblong, grooved, more or less 

 hairy at the apex, adherent to the palea or free. Perennials or 

 annuals, with leaves flat or convolute. Spike terminal. 



About twenty species found in temperate climates. 



A. repens, Beauv., (Triticum repens, L.) Quack, Quitch, 

 Quick, Twitch, Couch^ Dog, Scutch, Rye, Durfee, Chandler, 

 Witch, Quake, Squitch, or Fin's Grass or Creeping Wheat. 

 A very variable perennial with long, creeping rootstocks. 

 Culms 1-4 feet, smooth, glabrous. Leaves flat, sheaths terete, 

 iigule short, spike 2-10 in., straight or curved, spikelets 4-8 fld., 

 f-1 in. long. Empty glumes 5-7-nerved, rigid, cuspidate, acute 

 or awned ; floral glumes much the same, with an awn nearly its 

 length, or sometimes awnless. 



This grass is well known in most of the older portions of our 



FIG. 7&. Agropyrum repemt (Quack grass) ; part of a plant ; a, lower empty glume : 

 7 >, upper empty glume; c, floral glume ; d, palea ; e, lodicules, including the base or 

 I'tatpens, an abortive ovary and the feathery stigmas. (Sud worth.) 



