Illustrated Descriptions of the Grasses 



the first of the larger grasses to bloom. The stout stems grow 

 rapidl\-, and when clover fields are sweet with blossoms the coarse 

 panicles of Orchard Grass 

 are painted with large an- 

 thers of purple and yellow, 

 terra-cotta and pink, the 

 colour varying with the soil 

 and the abundance of light. 

 The few branches of the 

 flowering-head spread stiffly, 

 and near their extremities 

 the spikelets are crowded 

 in dense, one-sided clusters. 



Orchard Grass is one of 

 the most widely known of 

 cultivated grasses, and is 

 one that is highly valued by 

 the farmer, since the rank 

 growth, both in the pasture 

 and as aftermath in the 

 field, makes it for him the 

 earliest grass in spring and 

 the latest in autumn. It 

 grows especially well in 

 shaded places, where few 

 grasses attain luxuriant 

 growth, and in old orchards 

 the coarse tussocks are very 

 common. The sheaths differ 

 from those of the majority 

 of grasses in that they are 

 perfectly closed until the 

 inflorescence, forcing its way 

 up, causes them to split. 



Like many grasses that 

 were brought from Europe 

 at an earl\' date, Orchard 

 Grass attracted little at- 

 tention in England until re- 

 introduced to that C()Untr\' Dactylis glomerata 



193 



