The Book of Grasses 



cultivation, save on poorest soils vi'here more desirable species 

 fail to thrive. 



Velvet Grass. Salem Grass. Yorkshire Fog, Holcus 

 lanatus L. 



Perennial, with creeping rootstocks. Naturalized from Europe. 



Stem 1-3 ft. tall, erect. Sheaths and leaves clothed in soft white 

 hairs. Ligule about i" long or less. Leaves I'-j' long, 2"-6" wide, 

 flat, very soft, grayish green. 



Panicle I '-6' long, pyramidal, open in flower, downy, greenish white, 

 tinged with pink, rose, or purple. Spikelets 2-flowered, about 2" 

 long, lower flower perfect, upper flower staminate. Scales 4; outer 

 scales slightly unequal, clothed in short white hairs; ist scale acute 

 or obtuse, i-nerved; 2nd scale awn-pointed, 3-nerved; flowering scales 

 papery, smooth, the ist obtuse, the 2nd 2-toothed and bearing from 

 just below the apex a short awn which soon becomes hooked. Stamens 

 3, anthers white, yellow, or lavender. 



Meadows, waysides, and waste places. May to August. 



Nova Scotia to Ontario and Illinois, south to North Carolina and Ten- 

 nessee. 



MARSH OATS, MEADOW SPHENOPHOLIS, SLENDER 

 SPHENOPHOLIS, AND EARLY BUNCH-GRASS 



In the crevices and depressions of those rocks that push out 

 into woodland brooks, mosses and lichens surround the roots of a 

 few plants which might appear to be true air-plants, deriving their 

 sustenance from the winds of heaven, so scanty are the visible 

 means of support. But pull up the stalk of one of these — flower, 

 and stem, and root — and see how closely the rootlets hug the rock, 

 and penetrating the tiniest crevices hold the plants as securely 

 as though they were anchored on deep soil. 



One of the early summer grasses on such rocks, and near them, 

 is the Marsh Oats, which, although allied to other Oat-grasses, 

 unlike them is found in the low grounds of wet meadows and by 

 brooksides. The grass is slender, with thin, flat leaves, and 

 narrow, loosely flowered panicles whose flat spikelets of pale green 

 and yellow bear each a conspicuous awn from the upper flower. 

 In this latter peculiarity it differs from other species of this genus 

 which, like it, are slender, light green grasses of early summer. 



Although natives of this country these grasses are seldom found 

 in great abundance in the East. Meadow Sphenopholis, a tufted 



134 



