GENERA OF GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 129 



color of the panicle. This species is an erect plant 2 to 4 feet 

 high, producing rhizomes, and often decumbent at base, with flat 

 blades, prominent, somewhat pointed ligule, and an opeia, usually red- 

 dish panicle, 2 to 12 inches long, contracted in fruit, the branches in 

 whorls. Redtop is cultivated as a meadow and pasture grass in the 

 Northern States, especially upon soils lacking in lime and upon soils 

 too wet for timothy. In Pennsylvania and some other localities this 

 species is called herd's-grass. 



Agrostis capillaris L. (A. tennis Sibth., A. vulgaris With., A. 

 alba vulgaris Thurb.), Rhode Island bent, 1 differs from red- 

 top in its smaller size, more delicate culms and foliage, short truncate 

 ligule, smaller, more open, and fewer flowered panicle, not contract- 

 ing after flowering. Stolons are usually absent but may be as much 

 as 4 to 8 inches long. Rhode Island bent is often used as a lawn 

 grass, especially in the Northeastern States, where the soil is lacking 

 in lime and bluegrass does not thrive. In some botanical works the 

 name Agrostis canina has been incorrectly applied to Rhode Island 

 bent. Agrostis canina L., a European species occasionally introduced 

 into the Eastern States, is a frequent constituent of the commercial 

 seed of creeping bent. It is called velvet bent and gives promise 

 of being a fine lawn grass. 



Carpet bent, also called creeping bent, is a form of A. stolonifera. 

 This produces stolons from 1 to 4 feet long and is also used as a 

 lawn grass in the same region as that described for Rhode Island bent. 

 The seed has been imported from southern Germany. 



Fiorin is a name that was applied in England to a coast form with 

 stoloniferous habit, long ligule, and narrow dense panicles. This 

 form is found along the northern Atlantic coast of Europe and 

 America and along the Pacific coast from British Columbia to north- 

 ern California. It has been called A. maritima Lam. and A. alba 

 mcuritima (Lam.) Meyer. It is apparently indigenous in America, 

 while A. capillaris and A. palmtris appear to be introductions. 



Several native species of Agrostis are found in the western part of 

 the United States, especially in mountain meadows. One of the 

 commonest of the western species is A. exarata Trin., with contracted, 

 sometimes spikelike, panicles and awned or awnless spikelets, found 

 at all altitudes throughout the western portion of the United States. 



according to Jackson (Index to the Linnsean Herbarium, Proc. Linn. Soc. London, 

 124th Sess. Suppl. 1912), these specimens were added to the herbarium after 1753 and 

 can not, therefore, have weight in determining the original application of the name. Lin- 

 naeus did not refer, under Agrostis alba, to his flora of Sweden. It would appear that he 

 did not intend to apply the name originally to a Swedish plant. The species usually 

 known as Agrostis alba- is common in Sweden, but apparently was included by Linnaeus 

 under A. stolonifera, to which it is closely allied. It was not until later that he applied 

 the name to the species as now represented in his herbarium. Under these circumstances 

 it seems best to drop the name Agrostis alba, as has been done by Piper (U. S. Dept. Agr. 

 Bull. 692, 1918) and by Stapf, as indicated in a letter to Piper. 



1 See Piper, The Agricultural Species of Bent Grasses. U. S. Dept. Agr. Bull. 692. 1918 



97709 19 Bull. 772 9 



