﻿Walk. FI. of Oxf. p. 33.— Bah. Fi. Bath. p.39. — Mack. Catal. of PI. of Jrel p. 

 17. — Agropyrum repens, Gray’s Nat. Air. v. ii. p. 96.— Lindl. Syn. p. 299. — 

 Gramen spica triticea repens vulgare, caninum dictum, llay’s Syn. p. 390. 



Locat-ittes. — In fields, hedges, waste places, and cultivated land, everywhere. 

 Perennial. — Flowers from June to September. 



Root long, creeping very much, so as to be with difficulty extir- 

 pated, jointed, clothed with membranous sheaths; fibres downy. 

 Stems from 1 to 3 or 4 feet high, upright, slender, round, striated, 

 leafy. Leaves spreading, often growing from one side only, strap- 

 shaped, pointed, flat, from 5 inches to a foot long, and 3 or 4 lines 

 broad ; lower surface smooth, the margins and the upper surface 

 very rough. Sheaths tight, striated, smooth. Stipula fligulaj 

 (fig. 6.) very short, and finely notched. Spike nearly upright, 3 or 

 4 inches long, flat, composed of numerous, pretty close, elliptic- 

 oblong spikelets ; the rachis or common spike-staik is sometimes 

 hairy, especially at the edges. Florets from 4 to 9, the colour of 

 the foliage. Glum.es of the Calyx spear-shaped, ribbed, pointed 

 or awned. Outer Palea of the Corolla similar to the glumes, but 

 with fewer ribs, and those chiefly towards the summit, which end 

 either in a short point, continued from the Keel, or in a terminal 

 rough Awn, various in length, but seldom longer than the palea 

 itself ; inner Palea obtuse, or notched, awnless. A glaucous va- 

 riety (T. junceum of Relh.) is not uncommon on the sea-coast. I 

 have observed a glaucous variety, probably the same as the above, 

 in Binsey-lane near Oxford ; and near the West Leys, at Rugby, 

 in Warwickshire. 



This very common grass is the pest of gardens and arable lands ; 

 it abounds also in hedges. Several other grasses, however, with 

 creeping roots, are confounded with this by the husbandman, under 

 the names of Quich, Squitch, Couch, &c. all corrupted from Quick, 

 which signifies Living : and this grass was evidently so called, 

 because every particle of the root will grow. On some parts of 

 the Continent the roots are collected in large quantities, and sold 

 in the markets to feed horses. We cannot, says Mr. Graves, de- 

 termine how these roots may be acted upon by the climate, but 

 with us, cattle generally must be hard pressed before they would 

 touch them. They have a sweet taste, somewhat approaching to 

 that of Liquorice ; when dried and ground to meal, they are said 

 to have been made into bread in times of scarcity ; and on account 

 of the saccharine matter they contain, they have been recommend- 

 ed to be brewed for beer. The juice of them drank liberally, is 

 recommended by Boerhaave in obstructions of the viscera, parti- 

 cularly in cases of schirrous liver and jaundice. Dogs eat the 

 leaves as an emetic, probably acting mechanically. 



The most effectual method of getting rid of this troublesome weed, is by 

 ploughing, and carefully picking out the roots, by hand, and burning them ; 

 fallowing in a dry Summer has been recommended, but the roots have been 

 known to retain their vital properties, after being dried for the Herbariunq and 

 laid by for several months. 



In gardens the common method of destroying it, is by forking out the roots 

 as soon as the blade appears, or by trenching the ground very deep, and turning 

 the quich into the bottom below the reach of vegetation. The roots of this plant 

 are seldom found to run more than 9 inches or a foot deep in the ground. 



