clearly lead to this con- 
AGRICULTURAL SPECIES OF BENT GRASSES. 7 
in their cultures, extending over many years. Sinclair (15, pp. 227, 
230) records the same conclusion. This has also been the case in 
our limited experiments. 
RHODE ISLAND BENT. 
Rhode Island bent (fig. 2) is the most common and abundant grass 
on well-drained soils in 
New England and New 
York. It has every ap- 
pearance of being a na- 
tive, but it is highly 
probable that it was 
introduced from Europe, 
as it is not distinguish- 
ablefrom Agrostis vulgaris 
With., described origi- 
nally from England. 
There can be no doubt 
that this is the grass to 
which the name Rhode 
Island bent properly ap- 
plies. Both the literary 
and traditional evidence 
clusion, which, however, 
has been obscured by the 
fact that many recent 
writers erroneously asso- 
ciated the name Rhode 
Island bent with Agrostis 
canina lu., a grass rare in 
America. ig 
It will suffice to point 
out that Flint (5, p. 18— fe. 2.—Rhode Island bent (Agrostis tenuis). The detailed 
20), in 1857, was perfectly figures show the ligule and a single spikelet. 
familiar with both Rhode Island bent (Agrostis vulgaris) and white 
bent (Agrostis alba), the distinctive characters of which he contrasts. 
Howard (7), before this, distinguished ‘‘ Agrostis vulgaris major, 
large redtop, western redtop,”’ from ‘‘ Agrostis vulgaris minor, small 
redtop, finetop, etc.,”’ but erroneously associated the name ‘‘ Rhode 
Island, or Burden grass” with the former. Potter (13) in 1889 
described the methods of saving seed of Rhode Island bent used by 
him on Prudence Island. On this island the common grass to-day 
is Agrostis vulgaris, while Agrostis canina, if it occurs there at all, is 
at least very rare. 
