BULLETIN 692^ U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Colonial bent. This is identical with Rhode Island bent, as is proved by cultures. 

 Commercial seed has in recent years been gathered in small quantities in New Zealand. 



Velvet bent, or brown bent {Agrostis canina L.), a distinct but variable Euro- 

 pean grass, sparingly introduced into the United States. Seed is always present in 

 the bent seed gathered in Germany, here referred to as South German mixed bent, 

 as velvet bent makes up a varying proportion of the turf grown from such seed. By 

 an unfortunate error the name Agrostis canina has been associated with Rhode Island 

 bent by recent writers, and this has caused much confusion. 



Carpet bent. This grass is apparently always present in turf grown from South 

 German mixed bent ^ seed. On turf 3 years old grown from such seed, carpet bent 

 usually constitutes one-tenth to one-fourth of the turf. It produces long, creeping 

 branches, so that each plant at length forms a dense circular mat of fine turf. The 

 botanical name to be applied to carpet bent is still doubtful. 



REDTOP. 



Red top (fig. 1) is now the common name employed for the most 

 important of the bent grasses. In England, and formerly at least in 



New England, the names white- 

 top and white bent were used. 



Redtop is the largest and 

 most valuable of the grasses 

 here described. Commercial 

 seed has been grown for at least 

 40 years mainly in southern 

 Illinois. The grass is, with 

 scarcely a doubt, not indigenous 

 to North America, but has been 

 introduced from Europe. 



Botanically, red top is usually 

 known as Agrostis alba L. The 

 original specimens of Linngeus 

 still preserved in his herbarium 

 are of this gruss, but his de- 

 scription and references apply 

 partly to wood meadow grass 

 (Poa nemoralis L.). 



The name Agrostis stolonifera 

 L. is also frequently appHed to 

 redtop, owing to some doubt 

 concerning the type specimens 

 in the Linnsean herbarium. 

 Some botanists consider that 

 this name really belongs to the grass also known as Agrostis verti- 



1 South German mixed bent is often sold in the trade as "creeping bent,'' and usually under the scien- 

 tific name Agrostis stolonifera. This name, the first binomial given to any grass of the group here discussed, 

 belongs to a plant growing about Upsala, Sweden, there known as Kryp-hven, that is "creeping bent." 

 It is quite intermediate in characteristics between redtop and florin, as determined from authentic Swedish 

 specimens secured from Dr, Carl Liadman^ of Stockholm, Sweden, but it is seemingly very different from 

 carpet bent. 



'/~^. 



Fig. 1. — Redtop {Agrostis palustris). The detailed fig- 

 ures show the structure of the ligule, a spikelet in 

 bloom, and separate parts of the spikelet. 



