AGROSTIS. 



seed is ripe about the beginning of September. 

 This grass is late, unproductive, and contains 

 but little nutritive matter. Its creeping roots 

 greatly exhaust the soil ; in this variety they 

 are smaller than in the other varieties of 

 Agrostis, but equally difficult to extirpate when 

 once in possession of tenacious clays. This 

 property of the roots is the best character of 

 distinction for the purpose of the agriculturist, 

 as it may be found at any season or stage of 

 growth of the plant. 



The Agrostis canina, var. mutica, Awnless 

 variety of brown bent; Trickodium caninum 

 muticum (Schrader), Creeping-stalked brown 

 bent, is the most common grass on deep bogs, 

 even where they are subject to be under water 

 for six months in the year. It is a diminutive 

 plant, very unlike the produce of such soils: 

 . the leaves seldom attain to more than two or 

 three inches in length. The smallness of the 

 produce, even when cultivated in the most 

 favourable circumstances, affords a sufficient 

 proof of its unworthiness to be regarded by 

 the farmer in any other light than that of a 

 weed which indicates a soil capable of being 

 improved, so as to produce the most valuable 

 grasses by irrigation. It differs but little from 

 the Agrostis nivea, except in the want of awns 

 and the length of the culms. The structure 

 varies almost imperceptibly in the Agrostis ca- 

 nina, Agrostis nivea, and in this species. The 

 like gradual shades of difference may be per- 

 ceived in the colour of the plants ; the canina 

 is of a brownish-green colour ; this awnless 

 variety is of a pale green ; the nivea of a 

 greenish straw colour. The knots or bundles 

 of leaves attached to the decumbent shoots 

 show it to be connected with the Agrostis 

 canina faxdcularis. It flowers in England the 

 second and third weeks of July, and ripens 

 the seed about the middle of August. 



Agrostis canina cupillaris. Fine-panicled 

 brown bent. This variety is nearly akin to 

 the Agrostis canina fascicularis, bundle-leaved 

 bent; tufted bent. In old pastures, or light 

 soils, this bent may be readily distinguished 

 in ihe autumn by its shoots, which are fur- 

 nished with leaves in tufts or bundles, that 

 generally run along on the surface of the rest 

 of the herbage, and is occasioned, apparently, 

 by the cattle, which eat the other herbage, and 

 leave the scattered shoots of the tufted-leaved 

 bent untouched. It is a very common grass 

 on poor, light, but moist soils, incumbent on 

 clay, that have long been under pasture. This 

 and the woolly soft grass in some parts of Eng- 

 land are termed winter fog. From the above 

 details it will appear to be the least valuable 

 of the bent grasses that have been mentioned. 

 The cultivation of a grass of this value is out 

 of the question ; the point of most importance 

 to be ascertained respecting it is, how to re- 

 move it from the soil, and to substitute more 

 valuable grasses in its place. I have wit- 

 nessed the beneficial effects of coal ashes, as a 

 top dressing, when spread on the pasture in 

 sufficient quantity. The ashes favour the 

 growth of the superior grasses, and the pasture 

 being in consequence closely cropped by the 

 cattle, which now find the pasture more pala- 

 table, the tufted bent disappears ; it will, how- 



AGROSTIS. 



ever, be found by no means destroyed, but 

 only checked in its growth. This grass 

 flowers in England the first and second weeks 

 of August, and ripens the seed in the end of 

 the same month. 



Agrostis lobuta. Lobed bent ; sea-side bent. 

 The general appearance of this plant indicates 

 its inferior comparative value. It appears, ac- 

 cording to the information afforded by Mr. 

 Curtis, to be chiefly confined to the sea coasts. 

 It grows wild on a stiff wet, clayey loam, part 

 of the London blue clay, in the parish of Cud- 

 dington, near Epsom, Surrey. It does not ap- 

 pear to be of much value to the agriculturist, 

 although its nutritive powers are far from 

 being inconsiderable. 



Agrostis mexicana, the Mexican bent grass, 

 is, as its name implies, a native of South 

 America, and was introduced into England, by 

 Mr. Gilbert Alexander, in 1780. It delights 

 more in calcareous or clayey soils than in 

 those that are of a silicious sandy nature. It 

 perfects an abundance of seed, which when 

 sown produces plants that soon arrive at per- 

 fection. So far, therefore, it possesses the 

 requisite properties of a grass adapted for the 

 alternate husbandry ; but it is late in the pro- 

 duce of foliage in the spring, and that herbage 

 is not distinguished by any superior nutritive 

 powers. It is perfectly hardy. Being a native 

 of a warmer climate, its delects may possibly 

 be greatly lessened by being naturalized, and 

 by frequently raising it from seed successively 

 ripened in England. At present it does not 

 offer any strong reasons to recommend it fur- 

 ther to the notice of the agriculturist. It flow- 

 ers in the third week of August, and the seed 

 is ripe towards the end of September. 



Agrostis nivea. Snowy bent ; straw-coloured 

 bent grass. 



Agrostis palustris, or marsh bent. This is 

 considered only a variety of the Agrostis stolo- 

 nifera. This grass is properly a sub-aquatic : 

 it will grow on tenacious clays, but it seems 

 only to thrive in very moist soils, or in such 

 as are for the most part covered with water. 

 In moist woods it is more frequent than any 

 other of the creeping-stemmed bent grasses : 

 here the culms often attain to five feet in 

 height, when supported by bushes. The above 

 details show the inferior nature of this grass 

 compared to the larger, and even to the lesser 

 leaved varieties of the Agrostis stolonifera. It 

 cannot, therefore, as yet be considered in any 

 other light than a weed that chokes up drams 

 and underwoods. 



Agrostis ramosissima. Lateral -branching 

 bent grass. This is nearly allied to the Agros- 

 tis mexicana, and is one of the latest flowering 

 grasses. It is remarkable for the number of 

 branches that issue from the joints of the 

 stem ; and the woody substance of the culms 

 makes it approach to the nature of a shrub. 

 .It affords little herbage till the beginning of 

 summer, and flowers at so late a period of the 

 season (the first or second week in October), 

 that, the frost generally destroys the panicles 

 before the seed is perfected, the herbage is 

 killed by frost, but the roots suffer nothing 

 from its effects ; it is propagated by parting 

 and planting the roots early in the spring or 

 E 2 53 



