163 



Triticum repens. Creeping Wheat Grass. Couch Grass. Squjtch. 

 Spear Grass. Plate CXXXI. 



Spike elongated, compressed. Spikelets more or less imbricated and 

 erect, four- to eight-flowered. Glumes acuminate, many-ribbed. Outer 

 palea acuminate, five-veined. Eachis rough at the angles. Leaves 

 plane, or tending to involute, roughish, with a single row of hairs or 

 points on the veins on the upper side. Root creeping. 



Triticum repens, LinncBus. E. B. 909; ed. 2.178. Most English 

 botanists. Agropyrum repens, Beauvois. Lindley. 



Common in all parts of the kingdom, especially in arable land, where 

 owing to its creeping habit, it is among the most troublesome of weeds. 

 Its long, underground stems penetrate the loose soU in every direction, 

 and when once they have possession, are very difficult to eradicate, as, 

 broken up by the plough or spade, every fragment vegetates apart, 

 thus renewing or extending the crop. Few plants exhaust the ground 

 so rapidly of nutritive matter, and it can only be got rid of by repeated 

 fallowing or laying down to pasture. In gardens frequent disturbance 

 of the soil by digging or forking, and removal by the hand or rake of 

 the upturned runners, afford the only means of destruction. The 

 fibres of the roots are downy ; the erect, flowering stems rise to the 

 height of two or three feet, being comparatively slender, smooth, and 

 striated, the leaves on which are frequently aU directed to one side. 

 Leaves dark green ; in the more common form of the plant marked 

 above, with more or less conspicuous parallel lines of hairs or points 

 along the principal veins. Ligule short, obtuse. Spike compressed, 

 six to eight inches in length. Spikelets oval or oblong, varying from 

 four- or five- to seven- or eight-flowered. Glumes very acute, the apex 

 in some instances extending into a short awn, many-ribbed, or veined. 

 Outer palea very acute, and even slightly awned, though never so pro- 

 minently as in Triticum caninum, the awn scarcely exceeding half its 

 own length. 



Perennial. Flowers from June to September. 



The creeping stems of this grass, so pernicious and troublesome in 

 cultivation, are succulent, sweet, and very nutritive. They are greedily 

 devoured by horses and cows, although these animals never eat the 

 leaves unless at their first appearance in the spring. In the south of 

 Europe, the peasants collect them from the road sides and waste 

 grounds in large quantities, for the purpose of carrying them into the 

 town-markets as horse-food. Considerable profit is made by the poor 

 about Naples in this way. The flavour is somewhat similar to that of 

 liquorice-root, and Sir H. Davy found that they contained about three 

 times the amount of nourishment that exists in the leaves and stems. 

 Withering informs us that " when dried, and ground to meal, they have 

 been made into bread in years of scarcity ;" adding that " the juice of 



