1918] CURRENT LITERATURE 365 
British grasses 
The necessity of increasing the production of foodstuffs in the British Isles 
has brought ‘about a considerable reduction in the area of grasslan 0 
a 
With this in view ArmstroncG,? of the School of Agriculture, Calibeden 
University, has prepared a comprehensive work on British grasses. The boo 
is divided into two sections, the first being devoted to botany, the second to 
agriculture. In the botanical section is considered the morphology and “biol- 
ogy” (germination, pollination, and dissemination) of grasses, followed by a 
detailed description of the species. The author has distinguished the more 
common grasses by one key, or rather a synopsis, based upon foliage characters, 
and by another, based upon floral characters. These keys from the standpoint 
of technique leave much to be desired. They are not dichotomous nor are the 
characters uniformly contrasting, nor is there uniformity in the method of 
expression, the style shifting from phrase to sentence (“awn not exceeding 
palea” set against “awn exceeds palea”’). The structure of the spikelet is 
clearly set forth and well illustrated by diagrams. The figures are nearly all 
original and in the main are very satisfactory for diagnostic purposes. Some 
of the half tones are smudgy, but the cuts from drawings are g 
The agricultural section deals with the species from the agronomic stand- 
point. The commercial grasses of the United Kingdom include about the same 
species that are used in the cool humid sections of the United States, that is, 
the states east of the Great Plains and north of Tennessee and Virginia. In 
this region one meadow grass, timothy, and one pasture grass, Kentucky blue- 
grass or June grass, stand out preeminently. Redtop (Agrostis alba) is impor- 
tant in moist and so-called acid soils, but does not approach the others in 
acreage or value. Orchard grass and meadow fescue are locally important but 
fall far behind redtop in acreage. All other grasses for permanent pasture or 
meadow are, on the basis of acreage and value, scarcely worth considering. 
One of the first things the American agronomist wishes to know in con- 
sulting a work on British grasses is, what is the relative importance of the 
different species from the commercial standpoint as indicated by acreage under 
cultivation or by the value of the product ? An answer to this question cannot 
easily be obtained from the work before us. Apparently there are several 
species of approximately equal importance. The moist cool climate of the 
British Isles is favorable for the growth of several species that do not thrive 
under the more trying climate of the northeastern United States. Besides the 
species mentioned as important in this country, the following are considered 
in the present volume in such a way as to give the impression that they are 
commercially valuable: meadow foxtail (Alopecurus pratensis), sweet-scented 
? ARMSTRONG, S. F., British grasses and their employment in agriculture. 8vo. 
PP. viiit+-199. figs. 775. Cambridge University Press. 1917. 
