THE AGRICULTURAL GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 67 



The outer glumes are of about equal length, accuminate, rough ou the 

 keel. The flowering glume is one- third shorter than the outer ones, 

 rather acute, four-nerved, the nerves extended into short points or teeth, 

 and rarely with a very short awn on the back. The palet if present is 

 very minute, scarcely as long as the ovary. 



There is reason to believe that this grass can be made to supply the 

 same valuable place on the Pacific coast that the A. vulgaris does at 

 the East, but it requires investigation and experiment. (Plates 54 

 and 54a.) 



Agrostis microphylla. 



This is a species belonging to the western coast and the adjacent 

 mountains. It is apparently an annual or biennial, frequently with 

 several culms springing from one root. The radical leaves are few and 

 short. The culms are erect, stiff, 1 J to 3 feet high, with four or five rough 

 and rather rigid leaves 3 to 6 inches long, two or three lines wide, and 

 gradually pointed. The sheaths are long and roughish. The pan- 

 icle is 3 to 5 inches long, erect, spikelike, narrow, and (jensely flowered, 

 sometimes interrupted below. The spikelets are densely crowded on 

 the short, almost sessile, branches. The outer glumes are slightly un- 

 equal, rather more than a line in length ; awn pointed, narrowly lanceo- 

 late, scabrous or hispid on the keel. The flowering glume is about half 

 as long as the outer glumes, thin, acute, two-toothed at the summit, and 

 on the back, about one- third below the apex, furnished with a slender 

 awn three times its own length, which is readily seen projecting beyond 

 the outer glumes. There is no proper palet or only a microscopic one. 

 This grass deserves the attention of those who live in its habitat. It 

 may prove a useful species. (Plate 55.) 



Agrostis canina. (Dog's Bent Grass, Mountain Eed top.) 



A grass usually of low size, 6 to 12 inches high, with slender culms, 

 and a light, flexible, expanded panicle, growing in elevated regions or 

 in high latitudes, and with a perplexing variety of forms. The radical 

 leaves are numerous, but short and narrow. The culm has two or three 

 fine short leaves, 1 or 2 inches long, the ligule acute, short but con- 

 spicuous. The panicle is pyramidal in form, 3 or 4 inches long, of few 

 capillary branches, which are in pairs, horizontal in flower, more erect 

 and close in frait, dividing near the extremities into a few sparsely flow- 

 ered branchlets. The spikelets are on short, fine pedicels j the outer 

 glumes nearly equal, ovate and acute, one to one-half line long; the 

 flowering glume is about a quarter shorter than the outer ones, thin, 

 smooth, obtuse, and bearing on the back, about the middle, a fine, 

 straight awn about two lines long; the palet is so minute as to be hardly 

 Adsible to the naked eye. 



There are several varieties of this grass growing in mountainous re- 

 gions throughout the United States and in Europe. It forms a close 

 sod, and aflbrds considerable pasturage in those regions. (Plate 50.) 



