108 THE AGRICULTURAL GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



tliat its native habitat is ou tlie plains of Lorabardy, where broad and extensive 

 plains of pasture land are frequently inundated by the mountain streams which inter- 

 sect them. It is mainly adapted to irrigated meadows, and in these it is undoubtedly 

 superior to any other grass. 



Professor Pliares says : 



This grass stands drought well and grows most luxuriantly in our Southern States. 

 If not kept grazed or mowed, however, the leaves cover the ground so deeply and 

 densely that an excess of rain in very hot weather in the extreme South causes it to 

 rot suddenly, destroying even the roots. This I have never seen or heard mentioned 

 by any other person, but it occurred on my own farm one season, where I was reserv- 

 ing a lot for seed. 



Hon. J. S. Gould says : 



The valuable qualities of this grass, may be summed up as follows: Its habit of 

 ■coming early to maturity; its rapid reproduction after cutting; its wonderful adapt- 

 ation to all domestic animals, which is shown by the extreme partiality they manifest 

 for it, either alone or when mixed with other grasses, whether Avheu used as green 

 food for soiling, as hay or as pasturage, in which latter stage its stems are never 

 billowed to ripen and wither like those of other grasses. One of its greatest recom- 

 mendations is its beneficial influence on the dairy, not only in augmenting the flow 

 of milk, but in improving the flavor of the cheese and butter that are made from it. 



(Plate 114.) 



AGROPYRU^i. (Triticum.) 



This genus is by many botanists considered as a section of Triticum, 

 and our species are best known under that name. Tha spikelets are 

 usually from three to five flowered, compressed, alternately sessile on 

 the continuous or slightly notched axis of the simple spike and with 

 the side of the spikelets against the axis ; the outer glumes are nearly 

 equal membranaceous or herbaceous, one to three nerved, scarcely 

 keeled, tapering to a point, or awued ; flowering glumes similar to the 

 outer ones, but generally broader, rounded on the back, three to seven 

 nerved, pointed or awued from the apex; the palet nearly as long as 

 its glume, the two prominent nerves almost marginal and ciliate. 



Agropyrum REPENS. {THticum repens.) (Couch grass, Quack grass, 

 Quitch grass. Wheat grass, Twitch grass, Dog grass.) 



There has been a good deal of discussion relative to this grass, some 

 pronouncing it one of the vilest of weeds, and others claiming for it 

 high nutritive qualities overweighing all the disadvantages of its 

 growtli. Whichever party may be right, it is proper that farmers 

 should be acquainted with it in order to know how to treat it, and hence 

 our figure and description. It forms a dense sod by means of its far- 

 reaching rhizomas or root-stalks, which have short joints, and root tena- 

 ciously at every joint. 



It has an abundance of foliage, and sends up a flowering culm, 2 to 3 

 feet high, which is terminated by a close, narrow spike of flowers from 

 3 to G inches long. This spike consists of a succession of closely -set 

 spikelets, one at each joint of the axis, and placed flatwise with the side 



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