AGROSTIS. 



AGROSTIS. 



late in the autumn. It is neither very pro- 

 ductive nor nutritive. 



Agroslis repens. Creeping-rooted bent ; white 

 cent. The Agrostis nigra, or black couch 

 grass of Withering. Though a later growing 

 grass, it is less productive than the Agrofitis alba. 

 It is subject to the rust, a peculiar disease 

 which dries up the extremities of the leaves 

 and gives it an unsightly appearance. Simple 

 ploughing will be found ineffectual to root out 

 this weed in clayey soils. It will be found 

 ultimately the cheapest and most expeditious 

 mode of extirpating it to follow the plough and 

 fork out the roots. Burning, under such cir- 

 cumstances of soil, would doubtless be highly 

 beneficial, but the roots of this couch grass 

 penetrate so deep that a considerable part of 

 them would escape ; and the least particle of 

 the root soon produces a plant. It flowers in 

 England the second week of August, and the 

 seed is ripe about the latter end of September. 



Agroftis stolonifera aristata. Awned-creeping 

 bent. This variety of creeping bent, which is 

 allied to the Agrostis Canina or awned var. 

 Agr. vulgaris of Dr. Smith, is greatly inferior 

 to the larger-leaved variety (Agrostis stolonifera 

 latifolia, or florin) ; for the weight of nutritive 

 matter per acre afforded by the lutifolia is two- 

 thirds greater than that of the awned variety. 

 Cattle appear to eat this grass in common with 

 the rough-stalked meadow-grass and meadow 

 fox-tail grass. It flowers about a week later 

 than the florin, but the seed is ripe about the 

 same time. 



Agrostis stolonifera angustifolia. Smaller- 

 leaved creeping bent. This is the most com- 

 mon variety of the creeping bent, on damp, te- 

 naceous, clayey soils, and in moist woods. It 

 stands next in value to the longer-leaved vari- 

 ety of creeping bent ; but appears from all the 

 observations that have been made on it, when 

 growing in natural pastures, to be entirely neg- 

 lected by cattle, while any of the superior 

 pasture grasses presented a sufficiency for a 

 bite. It flowers in the second and third weeks 

 of July, and ripens the seed about the end of 

 August. 



Agrostis stolonifera (var. 1 latifolia}. Longer- 

 leaved creeping bent ; florin. [See Plate 5, n. 

 Hay Grasses.] 



The Rev. Dr. Wm. Richardson has intro- 

 duced this variety of the Agrostis stolonifera to 

 the agricultural world, under the name of Fi- 

 orin, and has shown its merits and properties, 

 deduced from his own experiments, in a vari- 

 ety of publications on the subject, to which the 

 reader is referred. It is greatly superior in 

 point of produce and nutritive powers to the 

 other varieties of Agrostis stolonifera. 



On comparing the specimens of these differ- 

 ent varieties, their resemblance to each other 

 is so great, that they may be easily mistaken 

 for each other, without a close inspection, and 

 some knowledge of botany to assist it. This 

 variety appears to be confined to rich ancient 

 j ist uve land, as its natural place of growth, 

 a.,d the other varieties to various soils and 

 situations ; and that when taken from these 

 different soils, and cultivated together under 

 the same circumstances, they retain their dis- 

 criminating characters. On damp, clayey 

 54 



soils, the second variety (smaller-leaved, creep- 

 ing bent) is the most common. To moors and 

 bog soils, the third variety (awned creeping 

 bent grass) is chiefly or altogether confined. 

 To light sandy soils, particularly when more 

 or less shaded, the fourth variety (wood creep- 

 ing bent grass) is peculiar ; and the fifth vari- 

 ety (marsh creeping bent grass) is seldom 

 found but in the bottoms of ditches, or by the 

 side of rivulets. The first variety being there- 

 fore scarce, and the others very common, there 

 is little room for surprise at the contradictory 

 results of experiments that have been made, 

 on one or other of these inferior varieties, by 

 gentlemen equally eminent for agricultural 

 knowledge under the conviction of their being 

 one and the same grass as recommended by 

 Dr. Richardson under the name of florin : 

 whereas, though they agree in the general ha- 

 bit of Dr. Richardson's variety, and indeed in 

 every respect except, in the characters before 

 described, their inferiority in every agricultu- 

 ral merit is so great, as to justify the oppro- 

 brious epithets that have been bestowed upon 

 them, by those who, from the above causes have 

 differed from Dr. Richardson's statements of 

 the merits of the first variety of florin, and 

 prevented that justice being done to the disco- 

 very which it may have deserved. 



The above details will assist the farmer in 

 deciding on the comparative merits of this 

 grass as a constituent of a mixture of grasses 

 for permanent pasture ; from which it will 

 doubtless appear worthy of attention, but its 

 value not so great as has been supposed, if 

 its habits or manner of growth be impartially 

 taken into the account, when compared with 

 the produce and nutritive powers of the other 

 grasses. The chief advantage of this grass, 

 in permanent pasture, is its late growth. It 

 remains in a degree inactive, till other grasses 

 have attained to perfection, and when their 

 productive powers become exhausted, those of 

 fiorm and its varieties begin ; and it will be 

 found, on inspection, that the latest mouthful 

 of herbage, and sometimes the earliest, in those 

 pastures, is principally afforded b)" this grass. 

 There has been much prejudice existing 

 against the different species of Agrostis in gene- 

 ral ; but let the proprietor of a rich ancient 

 pasture divest a part of it of this grass entirely, 

 and the value of the plant will be demonstrated 

 in the comparative loss of late and early herb- 

 age. The cock's foot grass is superior to the 

 larger variety of the creeping bent, in the pro- 

 portion nearly of 1 1 to 9. The meadow fescue 

 is also superior to florin in nearly the like pro- 

 portion as cock's foot The meadow fox-tail grass 

 is inferior to florin in the proportion nearly of 

 6 to 7. When cultivated separately, for the 

 purpose of green food or hay, florin requires to 

 be kept perfectly clear of weeds, its couchant 

 habit of growth affording great encouragement 

 for the health of upright growing plants 

 under this circumstance, weeds. It flowers in 

 England about the second and third weeks of 

 I July, and the seed is ripe about the second and 

 [ third weeks of August. The mode of convert- 

 i ing florin into hay, during the winter months, 

 | is amply detailed in Dr. Richardson's publica- 

 ; tions on Fiorin. Full information will there 



