74 THE FORAGE AND FIBER CROPS IN AMERICA 



Culms are round, erect, I to 2 feet tall. Leaf sheath is 

 smooth; leaf blade narrow, less than one-fourth inch; culm 

 leaves 2 to 6 inches long; basal leaves i to 2 feet and in 

 protected places 5.5 feet have been reported. Blade is keeled 

 with boat-shaped tip, the two halves closing when dry. 



The inflorescence is an open, spreading, pyramidal panicle 2 

 to 8 inches long, less branched, and carrying fewer spikelets 

 than redtop. Spikelets are three to five-flowered. 

 The outer glumes are shorter than the nearest 

 flowering glume. The flowering glume in all the 

 Poas is keeled, by which they may be distin- 

 guished from the Festucas in which the flower- 

 ing glume is rounded on the back. The flowering 

 SpikeletofKen- glume is awnless, but the base and margin and 



tucky bluo 



grass. En- the rachilla are covered with tangled or webby 

 larged four hairs which are removed when seed are cleaned 



times. 



for market. This makes Kentucky blue grass 

 seed more difficult to clean than Canada blue grass seed. 



73. Seed. The grain or caryopsis is enclosed in its chartaceous 

 flowering glume and palea. The seed namely, the flowering 

 glume is shorter than that of meadow fescue or perennial rye 

 grass or orchard grass. It can further be distinguished from 

 orchard grass by the twisted point and the strong spines along 

 the keel of the latter. Kentucky blue grass seed is sometimes 

 adulterated with Canada blue grass seed. The former has a 

 rather more pointed flowering glume which is five-nerved, while 

 the latter has only a keel and marginal nerves. Kentucky blue 

 grass seed (flowering glume) may measure from o.io to 0.15; 

 Canada blue grass seed from 0.08 to 0.09 inch in length. Canada 

 blue grass seed has a brighter and cleaner appearance than 

 Kentucky blue grass seed. In mass Kentucky blue grass seed 

 is a deeper brown color. Because of variations these distinc- 

 tions will not, however, always hold. 



