32 PASTURE PLANTS AND PASTURES OF N.Z. 



the one that is prevalent in a district is called ' ' Twitch, ' ' 

 without any further distinction. This leads to considerable 

 confusion, for different men are calling different grasses by 

 the same name. The following case that occurred within 

 the last two years will emphasise this point : A prospective 

 buyer of a farm found the land covered with a certain grass. 

 He asked the seller ' ' Is that Twitch ? " ' ' Oh no, " was the 

 reply, "that's not Twitch, that's Chewings Fescue. There 

 is a patch of Twitch on the place, I'll show it to you,'* and 

 the buyer was led to a small patch of Poa pratensis. An 

 agreement to buy the farm was therefore signed, but on 

 being informed by a friend that the commonest grass on the 

 farm was Twitch after all, the buyer repudiated the agree- 

 ment, and the seller sought damages therefor, the buyer 

 finally paying several hundred pounds to esca pe from his 

 bargain. The seller thought of Poa pratensis as twitch and 

 the purchaser's friend thought of Chewings Fescue under 

 that name. Hence the trouble. Since the various twitches 

 differ in feeding value, habits of growth, and difficulty of 

 eradication, it is advisable to be able to identify them, and 

 to give them distinctive names. The following seven are the 

 commonest : 



(1) Agropyrum repens. Twitch or Couch, sometimes 

 called long twitch or white twitch. The rhizomes are very 

 thick and of great length. They will easily penetrate 

 potato tubers. The sheath and blade of the leaf are often 

 but not invariably hairy. There is a pair of clasping ears. No 

 other twitch common in this country has ears. The flower 

 heads are superficially a good deal like those of Perennial Rye, 

 but observation will disclose that while the spikelets of 

 Ryegrass are set edgewise to the stem, those of Agropyrum 

 are set broadside on. The general height of the stems is 

 1 foot or 18 inches, but when growing in a crop of wheat 

 or oats they may reach a height of 3 ft. 6 in. or 4 ft. 



