"WTRE GRASS — BLUE GRASS. 



163 



CHAPTER XIV. 



WIRE GRASS OR BLUE GRASS OF THE NORTH — KENTUCKY 

 BLUE GRASS. 



WIRE GRASS, BLUE GRASS OP THE NORTH— {Poa eom- 

 pressa.) 



Stems ascending, flattened, the uppermost joint 

 near the middle; leaves short, green; panicle dense 

 and contracted, expanding more at flowering; short 

 branches often in pairs, covered with from four to 

 nine flowered flat spikelets; flowers rather obtuse, 

 linear, hairy below the keel, ligule short and blunt; 

 hight about a foot to eighteen inches. 



This is the Blue Grass of the North, and 

 it thrives on poor sandy knolls, and 

 though the foliage is not so luxuriant as in 

 other grasses, it is very valuable. It is found 

 principally in the mountainous portions of 

 East Tennessee, though it is seen everywhere 

 over the State. It is very hardy and, even 

 in paths that are trodden, it does well. Its 

 color has given it the name of "blue grass" 

 all through the North, but it must not be 

 confounded with Kentucky blue grass, to 

 which it is closely allied, differing principally 

 in having a flat stalk and a darker green 

 color. 



BLUE GRASS— (Poa pratensis.) t 



Lower florets connected at the base by a web of long, silky filaments, 

 holding the calyx; outer palea five ribbed, marginal ribs hairy; upper 

 sheath longer than its leaf ; hight from twelve inches to two feet; root 

 perennial, creeping; stem erect, smooth, round; leaves linear, fiat, 

 acute, roughish on the edges and inner surface; panicle diffuse, spreading, 



