26 FARM WKEDS OF CANADA 



SWEET GRASS (Hierochloe odorata (L.) Wahlenb.) 



Other English names: Indian Hay, Vanilla Grass, Seneca 

 Grass, Holy Grass, incorrectly called Couch or Quack Grass. 



Other Latin names: Holcus odoratus L.; Hierochloa borealis 

 Roem. and Schultes; Savastana odorata (L.) Scribn. 



A native grass, sweetly aromatic, with the fragrant prin- 

 ciple of the Tonka Bean and Sweet Clover (Coumarin). 



Perennial, deep-rooted, with wide-spreading white root- 

 stocks, which produce in summer many barren shoots with long, 

 flat, shining leaves of a deep green, over a foot in length. Flower- 

 ing stems are thrown up early in spring, the first flowers opening 

 when the stems are only a few inches out of the ground. Panicle 

 pyramidal, 1 to 3 inches high, loose during flowering, with spread- 

 ing branches, contracting and becoming dark golden-brown 

 as the seeds ripen, when the stems are 12 to 18 inches high. 

 Spikelets drooping, with shining papery outer scales, which are 

 yellowish tinged with purple, 1-seeded but 3-flowered, two 

 male flowers between scales, the margins of which are fringed 

 with hairs, and one female flower in the centre inside two smooth 

 scales. 



The seed (Plate 72, fig. 3) is enclosed in the inner smooth 

 scales. The naked seed closely resembles timothy, but is thin- 

 ner, more cylindrical, and sometimes bears at its apex the 

 remainder of the dried-off style (the elongated part of the pistil). 

 The miniature root of the germ is more prominent. 



Time of flowering: April to May; seed ripe by the begin- 

 ning of June. 



Propagation: By seeds and running rootstocks. 



Occurrence: Rare in the eastern provinces, growing mostly 

 in damp places by streams and rivers. Under-ripe stems of 

 this grass are gathered, cured and sometimes stained by Indian 

 women for weaving baskets, mats and other ornaments. In 



