38 



GRAMINEAE (GRASS FAMILY) 



The name of " Quack" or "Sweet Quack," which western 

 farmers have given this grass is confusing, for the true Quack- 

 grass flowers in June and its matted "couch" of 

 rootstocks is near the surface, while Vanilla-grass 

 flowers in early spring and its rootstocks are 

 deep in the soil. The whole plant has an odor 

 much resembling the Vanilla bean, most lasting 

 if plucked while the plant is in flower. In north- 

 ern Europe it is strewn before churches, the 

 trampling feet of the congregation causing it to 

 yield its fragrance, and this custom has given it 

 the name of Holy-grass. The Indians of the 

 Northwest make baskets and mats of it; the 

 perfume has a tendency to produce sleep, and 

 pillows are stuffed with it ; but as hay or forage 

 it has no value. 



Culms one to two feet in height, very slen- 

 der, erect, simple, smooth. Leaves of the flower- 

 ing stalks very short, lance-shaped, smooth or 

 only slightly roughened ; but after seeding the 

 rootstocks send up many barren stalks with long, 

 flat, rough, and deep green leaves whose task is 

 to assimilate and store food for next season's 

 early bloom. The panicles show when the stalks 

 are but a few inches above the ground and grow 

 with them, unfolding very suddenly; they are 

 pyramidal, two to four inches long, the branchlets 

 spreading and drooping when green but stiffening 

 F IG . i4.__va- and becoming erect and wiry as the seeds ripen, 

 nilla-grass (H iero- the glumes turning golden brown tinged with 

 ' to) ' X ' purple. Spikelets one-seeded. (Fig. 14.) 



Means of control 



Summer fallowing, with very deep plowing, which will expose 

 and wither the rootstocks. The ripened grass should first be mowed 

 and burned so as to avoid plowing under the long-lived seeds. 

 Or deep plowing in spring when the grass is in flower, and immedi- 

 ately seeding the ground heavily with some grass of quick growth. 



