12 BULLETIlSr 692, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTTTBE. 



mats 5 to 7 feet in diameter, and with relatively few flowering culms. 

 It is by this stoloniferous character that carpet bent is most strikingly 

 distinguished from Ehode Island bent, but the ligules are long and 

 the flowering panicles rather dense. 



Experiments are now under way to test turf grown from different 

 forms of carpet bent by vegetative multiplication. It is found very 

 easy to plant by cutting the long runners into pieces 2 to 3 inches 

 long. This method is entirely practicable where a uniform fine 

 qualitj^ of turf is desired. One plant 6 feet in diameter will give 

 enough cuttings to sow an area 30 feet square. Such pure strains 

 avoid the particolor effect so characteristic of greens seeded to 

 South German mixed bent. 



The botanical name to be applied to carpet bent is not yet certain. 



SUMMARY. 



(1) Rhode Island bent is a very common grass in New England 

 and New York and less common west to Michigan and south to 

 Virginia. The evidence points clearly to its being an introduction 

 from Europe. 



(2) Rhode Island bent seed was formerly gathered in considerable 

 quantities, mainly in Rhode Island, but in recent years very httle 

 of the genuine seed has reached the market. 



(3) The commercial decline of Rhode Island bent seed seems to 

 be correlated with the development of the redtop-seed industry in 

 Illinois. Redtop seed is cheaper and therefore was substituted for 

 Rhode Island bent by dealers. 



(4) Rhode Island bent is an excellent grass for fine turf, and for 

 this purpose is excelled only by velvet bent and carpet bent. 



(5) Rhode Island bent seed could be gathered nearly pure in 

 almost unlimited quantities from old pastures in New England and 

 New York. By the use of labor-saving machinery the seed should 

 be harvested cheaply enough to command a la.rge market. 



(6) Colonial bent, or browntop, the seed of which is gathered in 

 New Zealand in small quantities, is the same as Rhode Island bent. 



(7) The botanical names of Rhode Island bent and the related 

 grasses, redtop, fiorin, creeping bent, and velvet bent, have been much 

 confused. Some of the common names also have been erroneously 

 interchanged. The name fiorin reaUy belongs to a grass formerly 

 cultivated that possesses long, creeping, leafy runners and was 

 propagated solely by these runners, the seed never having been 

 handled commercially. This name therefore should not be used 

 either for redtop or for Rhode Island bent. The name Agrostis canina 

 belongs to velvet bent and should not be appUed to Rhode Island 

 bent, which botanicaUy is Agrostis tenuis. 



