COMMON PASTURE GRASSES. 



21 



beside the above names, has the following applied to it, viz., 

 Black Bent, Red Top, Waipu Brown Top, and Water Twitch. 

 The grass, as the last name implies, produces creeping stems 

 which in some varieties are subterranean, and in others 

 sprawl over the ground, and strike roots wherever a knot 

 comes in contact with the soil. The sheath is round, the 

 ligule distinct, and the blade tapers regularly from base 

 to tip. There are acute and prominent ribs on the upper side 

 of the blade, and no groove along its middle line. But all 

 these characters are somewhat obscure (except the taper- 

 ing blade), and while there is no grass easier to recognise, 

 there is none for which it is harder to detail diagnostic 

 characters. 



Creeping Bent is a 

 perfectly permanent grass 

 producing a rather small 

 amount of feed which is 

 fairly well liked by sheep 

 and this seems truer of 

 Brown Top than of the 

 other varieties. It is 

 thought in the North Island 

 to have poor fattening 

 qualities, but this is not 

 at all a universal experi- 

 ence. It thrives best on 

 very wet or swampy soils, 

 but does very well on light 

 soils with a rainfall of 50 

 inches or over. It be- 

 comes established in its 

 first season from seed, but 

 starts into growth rather 

 late in each season. Owing 



Fig. 12. Flower head of Creeping 

 Bent, (after Percival). 



