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Poa pratensis (June Grass ; Kentucky Blue Grass ; Spear Grass). 



A perennial grass, growing usually 1^ to 2 feet high, with an abundance of long, 

 soft, radical leaves, and sending off numerous running shoots from the base. The 

 panicle is pyramidal or oblong in outline, from 2 to 4 inches long, the branches 

 mostly in fives, at least below, 1 to 2 inches long, open and spreading, the longer 

 ones flowering above the middle. The spikelets are about 2 lines long, ovate, 

 closely three to five-flowered, mostly on very short pedicels. The ouier glumes are 

 acute; the flowering ones acute or acutish, five-nerved, the lateral nerves prominent, 

 the lower part of the lateral nerves and of the keel more or less hairy, and the base 

 clothed with webby hairs. 



There are several well-marked varieties, which are much modified 

 and improved by cultivation. It is indigenous in the mountainous re- 

 gions of this country as well as of Europe, and has been introduced into 

 cultivation in many countries. 



Its principal use is as a pasture grass and for lawns. For hay-mak- 

 ing there are many other grasses which furnish a heavier and more 

 profitable crop. It is a grass which seems to require special conditions 

 to bring out its best qualities, and hence it is held in very light or very 

 great estimation in different regions. In England it is used but little, 

 and never sown alone, but is generally recommended as a constituent 

 of permanent pastures because of the earliness of its growth. In New 

 Zealand, where it has been introduced, it is considered a curse rather 

 than a blessing, because it overruns alike pastures and cultivated 

 ground, and is as difficult of extermination as quack grass (Agropyrum 

 repens). It varies much in size and appearance according to the soil in 

 which it grows. 



In all the Middle and Eastern States it forms the principal constitu- 

 ent of pastures, but in some parts it is not highly esteemed. From the 

 unexampled success its cultivation has met with in Kentucky it has 

 acquired the name of Kentucky blue grass. 



The following very valuable notes on this grass are from the pen of 

 Major Alvord, in Cassell, Peter & Co.'s work on Dairy Farming : 



Th Poa pratensis of the botanist has obtained a very wide reputation as the Ken- 

 tucky blue grass, and led many into the mistaken belief that it was a peculiarly 

 American grass, confined to the famous pastures of the region whence it derived its 

 name. On the contrary, it is one of the most common grasses in nearly all parts 

 of the country, being variably known as June grass, green meadow grass, com- 

 mon spear grass, and Rhode Island bent grass, and it is the well-known smooth- 

 stalked meadow grass, or greensward, of England. There is no grass that accommo- 

 dates itself to any given locality with greater facility, whether it be the Missisippi 

 Valley, New England, Canada, the shores of the Mediterranean, or the north of Rus- 

 sia. It is found thriving upon gravelly soils, alluvial bottoms, and stiff clay lands 

 in the permanent pastures of Missouri, and along the roadsides of Minnesota. Soil 

 and climate cause varieties in its size and appearance, and this protean habit ac- 

 counts for the various names by which it is known. 



It probably attains its highest luxuriance and perfection as a pasture grass in the 

 far-famed blue grass district of Kentucky. The central part of Kentucky, an area of 

 15,000 square miles or more, over limestone foundation, seems to be the richest blue 

 grass country. There its seed-stalks are 2 to 3 feet high, with several long, parallel- 



