130 FIELD AND GARDEN PRODUCTS 



(Redfieldia flexuosa) . A stout, native perennial, 18 inches to 4 feet 

 high, with long, narrow leaves and diffusely spreading panicles, 

 growing in the sandy districts of Nebraska, Colorado, and Kansas. 

 It has deeply penetrating and widely spreading underground stems 

 or rhizomes, making it a valuable species for binding drifting sands. 

 It is a characteristic grass of the sandhills of central Nebraska, grow- 

 ing in the drifting sands and "blow-outs," and is a conspicuous and 

 almost the only grass found on the sand-dunes south of the Arkansas 

 River, near Garden City, Kans. Fox-grass (Spartina patens). A 

 rather slender species, 1 to 2 (rarely 3 to 4) feet high, with two to 

 four slender, erect, or widely spreading spikes. This is common 

 upon the salt marshes, and is one of the most valued species which go 

 to farm the salt hay that these marshes produce. It ranges from 

 Maine southward to Florida and along the Gulf coast to Texas. It is 

 useful for packing glassware, crockery, etc., and in the larger towns 

 along the coast is much used for this purpose. Seaside Oats (Uniola 

 panicwlata) . A native, with stout, erect stems 3 to 5 feet high, long, 

 ri^id leaves, and showy nodding panicles of broad, pale straw-colored 

 spikelets. The panicles are gathered for dry bouquets, and are often 

 seen in our markets, along with the plumes of Pampas-grass. It 

 grows in the drifting sands along the seashore, just above high tide, 

 from Virginia southward to Florida, and along the Gulf Coast west- 

 ward to Texas. It is an excellent sand binder, its rootstocks being 

 very strong and penetrating deeply into the soil, much like those of 

 Beach or Marram grass, of which it is a southern analogue. The 

 leaves are sometimes cropped by cattle, but the grass is too tough and 

 dry to be of any importance as a forage plant. Also : Seacoast bent, 

 sand g., Bermuda g., blady g., creeping panic, St. Augustine g., and 

 Japanese lawn g. 



Grasses for Embankments. Couch Grass; Quack Grass (Agro- 

 pyrum repens) . There has been a good deal of discussion relative to 

 this grass, some pronouncing it one of the vilest of weeds, and others 

 claiming for it high nutritive qualities overweighing all the disad- 

 vantages of its growth. Whichever party may be right, it is proper 

 that farmers should be acquainted with it in order to know how to 

 treat it, and hence this description. It forms a dense sod by means 

 of its far-reaching rhizomes or rootstocks, which have short joints, 

 and roots tenaciously at every joint. It has an abundance of foliage, 

 and sends up a flowering culm 2 to 3 feet high, which is terminated 

 by a close, narrow spike of flowers from 3 to 6 inches long. This 

 spike consists of a succession of closely set spikelets, one at each 

 joint of the axis, and placed flatwise with the side against the stalk. 

 Each spikelet contains several (three to eight) flowers, with a pair 

 of nearly equal and opposite three to five-nerved glumes at the base. 

 Vetivert (Andropogon squarrosus). A stout perennial, 4 to 6 feet 

 high, with strong, fibrous, and highly fragrant roots. A native of 

 India, occurring also in some of the West India Islands and Brazil, 

 growing in marshes and on river banks. Introduced into Louisiana 

 many years ago, and now spontaneous in some of the lower parts of 

 that State. Big Sand-grass (Calamovilfa longifolia) . This grass 



