FEATHER GRASS. 57 



and productiveness of the soil. For this purpose those 

 kinds which produce a large quantity of small seeds, 

 and a large, luxuriant growth of leaves, are best. The 

 perennials might be sown with winter grains, the an- 

 nuals with spring. 



The practice of turning in green crops for manure is 

 not of recent origin. Its benefits have been long 

 known; but the clovers, buckwheat, and other large- 

 seeded grasses, have generally been used for this pur- 

 pose. But many other plants offer a cheaper substitute, 

 since their seeds are smaller and less expensive, the 

 only cost, indeed, being the expense of gathering. 



14. STIPA. Feather Grass. 



Spikelets one-flowered ; flowers stipitate or borne on 

 a slender stalk ; glumes equal, membranaceous ; pales 

 longer than the glumes, thick, and leathery, the lower 

 tipped with a very long awn, bent above, and twisted at 

 the base ; seed-scale rounded or cylindrical. Inflores- 

 cence in spreading panicles. Perennial, growing from 

 one to two feet high. 



FEATHER GRASS (Stipa pennata) is one of the most 

 beautiful of this genus. The awn of the floret is very 

 long and feathery, rising from the summit of the outer 

 palea, and often more than twenty times its length, and, 

 with the exception of an inch at the base, which is 

 twisted, soft and feathery through its whole length. 

 The root is perennial and fibrous; the stem erect, round, 

 smooth, hollow, from eighteen inches to two feet high ; 

 sheaths of the leaves roughish, and covering the joints. 

 Stigmas feathery. 



This grass is well known for its great beauty, and is 

 cultivated in gardens, and gathered for vases and parlor 

 ornaments. It grows wild in many parts of Germany, 

 in dry, sandy soils. 



RICHARDSON'S FEATHER (Stipa ftichardsonii) is a spe- 



