Part n.— THE SEEDS OF REDTOP AND OTHER BENT GRASSES. 



By F. H. HiLLMAN, Assistant Botanist, Seed- Testing Laboratories. 

 INTRODUCTION. 



It is important that the seed of redtop be distinguished from that 

 of other bent grasses which have finer leaves and stems, because 

 it is often sold as seed of the latter. Redtop seed has been imported 

 from Europe as seed of the finer bent grasses, and more rarely the 

 latter has been imported as seed of redtop. 



The seed of common redtop (Agrostis palustris Huds. ; Agrostis 

 alba L. of most botanists) is mostly produced in southern Illinois. 

 The seed of Rhode Island bent (Agrostis tenuis Sibth. ) , a very abun- 

 dant grass in New England and New York, formerly was gathered - 

 in commercial quantities, but httle, if any, of it has been in the 

 market in recent years. Colonial bent seed has been received from 

 New Zealand. Plants grown from this seed have proved to be 

 Agrostis tenuis and therefore botanicaUy identical with Rhode 

 Island bent. The seed of South German mixed bent, beheved to be 

 produced in southern Germany only, has been imported from different 

 points in Europe and from England. "South German mixed bent" 

 is not a trade name, but it is used in this bulletin to avoid confusion 

 with the trade names in use. This seed is a mixture of the seed of 

 redtop, velvet bent (Agrostis canina L.), and one or more undeter- 

 mined species or varieties of bent. 



TRADE CONDITIONS. 



The relation to each other of the kinds of seed under discussion 

 as they appear in the trade is essentially as f oUows : American-grown 

 redtop seed is not Hkely to have mixed with it seed of the other bent 

 grasses. Rhode Island bent seed, now at least rare in the market, 

 is likely to contain some seed of redtop, since the latter grass is 

 common where the Rhode Island bent prevails. Seed of velvet 

 bent (Agrostis canina) does not occur in the trade as pure seed, and 

 but rarely as a predominating ingredient of South German mixed 

 bent seed. It appears to enter the American trade only through 

 the imported seed produced in southern Germany. 



The samples of colonial bent which the writer has seen contained 

 considerable chaff, but the bent seed was the purest Agrostis tenuis 

 that has come under his observation. Seed of South German mixed 

 bent, imported under one name or another, exhibits the impurities 

 characteristic of seed produced in Europe, and in this way can be 



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