iigog.] Meadow Foxtail. 195 



be readily recognised at a glance or by touch alone. The 

 colour of the flower-head of Foxtail is light green or silver- 

 grey, and when drawn between the finger and thumb from 

 the base upwards is soft and silky in texture ; that of Timothy 

 ! is harsh and rough to the touch. The florets of Foxtail have 

 silky awns, those of Timothy no awns whatever; and, more- 

 over, Foxtail is an early grass coming into flower early in 

 April and in full bloom about the end of May, whereas 

 Timothy is a late grass flowering in July. 



To determine the feeding quality of a pasture it is necessary 

 to know the various grasses of which it is composed by the leaf 

 and shoot structure alone. Foxtail may be readily recognised 

 in pastures, even when closely cropped by grazing animals, 

 if the portion of the leaves remaining and the base of the 

 shoots underground be carefully examined with a low-power 

 lens. It will be observed that the shoots and leaves are 

 glabrous or smooth, the base of the shoots reddish-purple in 

 colour, the ribs on the leaves low and flat, while the ligule 

 or membrane at the junction of the stem and leaf is shorter 

 than it is broad, and is hairy on the back. 



In the purchase of grass seeds of any kind it is sufficiently 

 obvious to the farmer that the several species he intends 

 to include in the mixture to sow down as pasture differ very 

 widely from each other in shape, size, colour, and weight 

 when closely examined, but it may not be apparent without 

 expert examination that the quality of the different kinds 

 is as varied as their appearance. The "seeds" of Meadow 

 Foxtail (Fig. 1) consist of the entire one-flowered spikelet, 

 which is ciliated along the keel of the glume and on its 

 flattened edges. The glumes are united at the base to about 

 the middle of the spikelet, and the flowering glume is awned. 

 As the flower-head of Meadow Foxtail ripens very unequally, 

 the vitality of much of the seed offered to farmers is very 

 low, though the quality of this seed has improved very greatly 

 during the last fifteen or twenty years. In the early experi- 

 ence of the writer as a commercial analyst in testing this seed, 

 germination results varying from 5 to 20 per cent, only of 

 vital seeds were the rule rather than the exception. Though 

 the quality of the seed has improved year by year, and the 

 farmer to-day can buy seed under a definite guarantee to 



p 2 



