220 COMMON WEEDS 



shiny brownish-green or purplish spikelets are 2 to 5 

 inches long, and the branches wavy or flexuous. The 

 flowering glumes are awned. Flowering takes place 

 between June and August. The " seeds " were formerly 

 used to adulterate those of Golden Oat-grass. 



Tufted Hair-grass (Aim ccespitosa L.) is a perennial 

 commonly known as Tussac or Tussock grass, or 

 Hassock grass, owing to the fact that it grows in dense 

 close tufts which stand out as hummocks among the 

 surrounding herbage. This grass (Fig. 67) occurs 

 chiefly in damp pastures and meadows and in woods. 

 It grows from 2 to 4 feet high, with erect, stout, 

 leafy stems, flat rough leaves which cut like razors, 

 and nodding panicles with flexuous branches of spikelets 

 resembling those of A. flexuosa, but with a shorter awn 

 to the flowering glume. It flowers in June and July. 

 This grass is seldom touched by cattle. In some dis- 

 tricts the tufts are named "bull faces" or "bull 

 pates." l 



Tufted Hair-grass may be reduced by draining and 

 manuring. The tufts should be dug up, and left to 

 wither or be thrown upon the compost heap. More 

 commonly the hassocks are chopped out with an adze. 

 This grass is also reduced by the use of lime. 



Yorkshire Fog" (Holcus hnatus L.) is one of the most 

 common and widely distributed of grasses. It is re- 

 produced freely and rapidly from seed, and occurs 

 plentifully in meadows and pastures, water meadows 

 and inferior hay-fields on many soils, perhaps especi- 

 ally on calcareous loams. Yorkshire Fog (Fig. 68) is 

 a densely tufted perennial, i to 2 feet high, and covered 

 with soft woolly down or hairs. The slender stems are 

 upright and leafy, the leaves flat and soft. The panicle 

 is branched, 2 to 5 inches long, and in the early stages 



1 The Complete Grazier. 



