33 



Genus 14. AGROSTIS. Beut Grass. 



Gen. Char. Inflorescence loosely panicled. Spikelets laterally 

 compressed, one-flowered. Glumes two, the upper or inner 

 one smaller, membranaceous, acute, awnless, longer than the 

 flower. Flower sessile, occasionally with one or two tufts of 

 very short hairs at the base. Palese two, the inner one rarely 

 absent, unequal ; the outer with or without an awn. 



The Grasses of this genus contribute in no trifling degree to the 

 green covering of the earth in temperate climates. Upwards of a 

 hundred species are known ; but, of this number, a few only have 

 hitherto attracted the attention of agriculturists. Their foliage 

 is in most instances very sparingly produced, compared with the 

 ground occupied ; the individual leaves are small and short, or 

 thin and wiry ; they flower late in the season, and their slender 

 flower-stems are harsh and rigid. Hence in meadows reserved for 

 mowing they add but little to the crop, and in pastures occupy 

 space to the exclusion of others more productive, and better liked 

 by cattle, to whose palate the Bent grasses generally seem ungrate- 

 ful — indeed they often refuse hay in which any considerable 

 quantity of them is present. To this collective character of the 

 genus there are perhaps a few exceptions, of which certain varieties- 

 of Agrostis alba afibrd equivocal example. 



The generic name was, as noticed under the last genus, a term 

 applied to grass collectively by the ancient Greeks, derived from 

 agros, a field. 



There are only four species found in the British Islands, but 

 two of these present several striking varieties. 



Agrostis canina. Brown Bent Grass. Plate XXVIII. 



Branches of the panicle elongated, slender, erecto-patent, rough. 

 Glumes unequal, lanceolate, acute, rough on the keel. Inner 

 palea minute or absent j outer one erose at the summit, four- or 

 five-veined, with a knee-bent and twisted awn arising from below 

 the middle and extending above the palea. Lower leaves setaceous, 

 tufted ; those of the stem narrow linear ; sheaths smooth ; ligule 

 oblong, acute. 



Agrostis canina, Linrums. E. B. 1856; ed. 2. 96. Most modern 

 authors. Trichodium caninum, Schrader. Lindley. Loudon 

 Hort. Brit. 26, Encyc. 56. 



Often very abundant on moist heaths and moors. Its long, 

 trailing, leafy shoots root at every joint, forming the setaceous tufts 



