4 THE FORAGE AND FIBER CROPS IN AMERICA 



into brown or colorless scales and the nodes are less pro- 

 nounced, when it is known as a rhizome or rootstock. 



Another difference may also be noted in the mode of growth. 

 The branch arising at a node must of necessity arise in the 

 axil of the leaf. The branch grows up within the leaf sheath, 

 intravaginal, or it may bore its way through the base of the 

 leaf which encloses it, extravaginal. Those plants which are 

 tufted such as orchard grass and perennial rye grass belong 

 to the former class. All strongly creeping plants such as 

 Kentucky blue grass, redtop, meadow foxtail, and smooth brome 

 grass belong to the latter. In timothy and meadow fescue 

 the branches arise within the axil of the leaf sheath and sub- 

 sequently break through. Plants that are strongly stoloniferous 

 produce the densest sod and therefore the best pasture. On 

 the other hand, this density of sod seems to interfere with the 

 production of culms, and hence strongly stoloniferous plants 

 in a few years produce small yields of hay. 



A single timothy seedling at the Cornell Station produced 

 86 seed-bearing culms during the first summer of its growth 

 and over 250 seed-bearing culms during the second summer. 

 Eraser has shown that in timothy each conn and its accom- 

 panying roots die after producing a single seed-bearing culm. 

 Grasses may, therefore, be kept alive as well as spread, by 

 asexual or vegetative reproduction. Plants possessing this habit 

 are counted by botanists as perennial ; but it is evident that 

 they are perennial in a different sense from that of a red clover 

 plant, an alfalfa plant or a tree. 



If we look upon each portion of a plant arising from a node 

 and possessing separate roots as an individual, we may then 

 say that the individual timothy plant does not, probably, produce 

 fruit but once. It is obvious, therefore, that the duration of 

 timothy is dependent upon those conditions which influence 

 vegetative reproduction. Whether this is true of all grass 

 plants it is perhaps not possible to state absolutely, but it seems 



