Part I1.—THE SEEDS OF REDTOP AND OTHER BENT GRASSES. 
By F. H. Hitiman, Assistant Botanist, Seed- Testing Laboratories. 
INTRODUCTION. 
It is important that the seed of redtop be distinguished from that 
of other bent grasses which have finer leaves and stems, because 
it is often sold as seed of the latter. Redtop seed has been imported 
from Europe as seed of the finer bent grasses, and more rarely the 
latter has been imported as seed of redtop. 
The seed of common redtop (Agrostis palustris Huds.; Agrostis 
alba L. of most botanists) is mostly produced in southern Illinois. 
The seed of Rhode Island bent (Agrostis tenuis Sibth.), a very abun- 
dant grass in New England and New York, formerly was gathered 
in commercial quantities, but little, if any, of it has been in the 
market in recent years. Colonial ent seed has been received from 
New Zealand. Plants grown from this seed have proved to be 
Agrostis tenuis and therefore botanically identical with Rhode 
Island bent. The seed of South German mixed bent, believed to be 
produced in southern Germany only, has been imported from different 
points in Europe and from England. ‘‘South German mixed bent” 
is not a trade name, but it is used in this bulletin to avoid confusion 
with the trade names in use. ‘This seed is a mixture of the seed of 
redtop, velvet bent (Agrostis canina L.), and one or more undeter- 
_ mined species or varieties of bent. 
TRADE CONDITIONS. 
The relation to each other of the kinds of seed under discussion 
as they appear in the trade is essentially as follows: American-grown 
redtop seed is not likely to have mixed with it seed of the other bent 
grasses. Rhode Island bent seed, now at least rare in the market, 
is likely to contain some seed of redtop, since the latter grass is 
common where the Rhode Island bent prevails. Seed of velvet 
bent (Agrostis canina) does not occur in the trade as pure seed, and 
but rarely as a predominating ingredient of South German mixed 
bent seed. It appears to enter the American trade only through 
the imported seed produced in southern Germany. 
The samples of colonial bent which the writer has seen contained 
considerable chaff, but the bent seed was the purest Agrostis tenuis 
that has come under his observation. Seed of South German mixed 
bent, imported under one name or another, exhibits the impurities 
characteristic of seed produced in Europe, and in this way can be 
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