64 Kansas State board of agriculture. 



stamen present. It grows in wet and moist shaded places. It affords considerable 

 forage. 



There is a var. (pendula), usually considered a separate species, which is more 

 slender, with a looser drooping panicle, more capillary branches and thinner glumes. 



Agrostis, L.— A large genus of grasses, mostly perennials, usually with low culms forming dense 

 tufts. The open panicle has one-flowered spikelets. The outer glumes are acute, 1-nerved, awnless, 

 nearly equal or the lower rather larger and longer than the flowering glume. The latter is very thin, 

 3 to 5-nerved, with or without an awn on the back. The palet is shorter than the flowering glume, 

 often a mere scale or entirely absent. 



83. Red-top; Fine-top; Bobden's Geass; Bent Geass; Agrostis vulgaris, With. 

 — A perennial grass, 2 or 3 feet high, from creeping and interlacing root-stocks. 

 The panicle is oblong in outline, 4 to 6 inches long, open, composed of 8 or 10 joints 

 or whorls. The spikelets are about a line long, varying from greenish to purple. 

 The variety alba (Ageostis alba, L.) is distinguished by having a closer panicle and 

 longer ligules. A valuable grass; many forms (so-called "varieties") in cultivation. 

 (Plate No. 83.) 



84. Nobtheen Red-top; Mountain Red-top; Agrostis exarata, Trin. — A varia- 

 ble grass, usually more slender than the common Red-top; the panicle is usually 

 larger, narrower, and looser. It is pale green, rather loose, but with erect branches. 

 In all the forms the palet is wanting or minute. This is chiefly a northern species, 

 but a very promising grass. 



85. Bent Geass; Agrostis elata, Trin. — The culms are stout, 2 to 3 feet high. 

 The ligules are 2 to 3 lines long. The spikelets (1-J- lines long) are crowded on the 

 branches of the spreading panicle above the middle. Not known to be valuable. 



86. Thin Geass; Bent Geass; Agrostis perennans, Tuck. — The culms are slender, 

 erect from a decumbent base, 1 to 2 feet high. The pale green at length spreading 

 panicle has short branches, which are divided and flower-bearing from or below the 

 middle. Grows in shaded places. Perhaps of no agricultural value. 



87. Haib Geass; Agrostis scabra, Willd. — The culms are slender, 1 to 2 feet 

 high, with leaves short and nrrrow. The loose purplish panicle has long capillary 

 branches, which are flower-bearing at or near the apex. Rather abundant, and 

 yields sometimes considerable forage. 



Calamagrostis, Roth. — This large genus includes 20 or more American species which are peren- 

 nial and have running root-stocks. The spikelets which form a contracted or open panicle are one- 

 flowered, and have usually a bristle-like hairy rudiment opposite the palet. The outer glumes are 

 nearly equal, keeled, awnless and membranaceous or scarious. The flowering glume has usually a 

 ring of hairs surrounding the base; it is entire or 2-toothed, and usually with an awn on the back. 

 The palet is narrow, thin, 2-nerved, and 2-keeled. 



88. Small Keed-gkass; Blue Joint; Calamagrostis Canadensis, Beauv. — A stout, 

 tall, erect grass, with hollow culms, 3 to 5 feet high. The leaves are a foot or more 

 in length, from £ to i inch wide, and roughish — the stem and sheaths smooth. The 

 panicle is of a purplish color, 4 to 6 (or even 8) inches long, and 2 or 3 inches in di- 

 ameter; the branches are usually in fives. The awn is delicate and straight. It 

 grows (mostly northward) in wet or low ground, and where abundant is valuable 

 especially as a meadow-grass. (Plate No. 88.) 



89. Reed Bent-geass; Calamagrostis confinis, Nutt. — The culms are 2 to 5 feet 

 high. The panicle is elongated, its branches spreading at flowering-time. The 

 awn (borne much below the middle of the glume and surpassing it) is bent, diver- 

 gent, or twisted when dry. The hairs of the flower are copious, equal, slightly 

 shorter than the flowering. Rare, but perhaps found in the eastern counties of the 

 State. Of no known agricultural value. 



Ammophila, Host.— This is a small genus, being a part of the old genus Calamagrostis (now Dey- 



