HOW TO GROW GOOD GRASSES. 



69 



The Bent Grass (Agrostis stolon if era, fig. 26) is 

 probably only a variety of the common marsh species, 

 A. alba. Under the 

 name of Eiorin Grass, 

 this plant has been 

 mncli extolled for the 

 meadow ; but our ex- 

 perience shows it to 

 vary in value according 

 to the nature of the 

 position in which it is 

 placed : as thus, in an 

 irrigated meadow it 

 sends up a large quan- 

 tity of quite rich pas- 

 turage, whilst in poor 

 or |dry districts its her- 

 bage is hard and harsh, 

 and not at all relished 

 by cattle or sheep. 



The form we have 

 figured is more particu- 

 larly agrarian where its 

 creeping underground 

 stem forms a kind of mischievous couch, and this, 

 united with a tangled growth derived from shoots 

 rooting above the ground, renders this one of the 

 most pernicious weeds, especially in thin soils, on 

 calcareous, brashy, or stony soils. 



Woolly Soft Grass (Holcas lanatus, fig. 27), though 

 exceedingly pretty from its contrast in colour and 

 form with its congeners, is still so worthless in point 

 of feeding properties as to be little, if any, better 

 than a weed. It is too abundant in some moist 

 G 2 



Fig. 26. The Bent Grass. 



