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are as a rule only a few inches long and never as luxuriant as in Creeping 
bent. It, therefore, spreads comparatively slowly and does not form as 
matted and compact a sod as that produced by the latter. Nevertheless 
it makes a fine turf and is much superior to Redtop for lawns and greens. 
It is much less exacting in its demand for moisture than Creeping bent and, 
as it will thrive even on dry, sandy soil, it has a much wider range of 
usefulness than the latter. 
Rhode Island bent is not handled by many Canadian seedsmen, at 
least not regularly. When it is, it is listed under the name of Agrostis 
canina . In “Standardized Plant Names” the name Agrostis capillaris is 
applied, with A. vulgaris and A. tenuis as synonyms. 
Herd’s grass, as understood when the name is applied to a species 
of the bent grasses, is the same as Redtop. 
Fiorin, apparently a corruption of the Irish “Fiorthan,” is an old 
name used by Dr. William Richardson of Moy, Ireland, in the early part 
of the nineteenth century, for a bent grass characterized by long, rather 
coarse, leafy stolons, creeping on the surface of soil and rooting at the 
nodes, in other words, for a grass belonging to the Creeping bent group. 
Now the name is in many cases applied indiscriminately both to Redtop 
and to stoloniferous bent grasses allied to the latter. 
Browntop, a trade variety recently put on the market from Prince 
Edward Island, is botanically the same as Rhode Island bent. It is listed 
in “The Seeds Act, 1923,” under the name of Agrostis tenuis. 
Prince Edward Island bent is identical with the Browntop of “The 
Seeds Act, 1923.” 
Colonial bent is a bent grass grown in New Zealand which during 
the last few years has been put on the North American market. According 
to Piper (27, p. 10), “turf and plants grown from this seed show it to be 
identical with Rhode Island bent.” Its close relationship to Rhode Island 
bent and to the Browntop of the Maritime Provinces is furthermore 
apparent from its history, concerning which the following information 
has kindly been given by Dr. A. McTaggart, Assistant Professor of Agro- 
nomy, Macdonald College, Que. In a letter of March 16, 1927, Dr. Mc- 
Taggart writes as follows: 
“The history of Colonial bent or Brown Top or Waipu Brown Top (the two latter 
names are in general use in N.Z.), as far as the growing of it in New Zea and is concerned, 
is bound up with the history of a settlement of Nova Scotian Highlanders at Waipu, on 
the east coast of Auckland province north of the city of Auckland. About 70 years ago 1 
these people, who had emigrated from Prince Edward Island and from Cape Breton Island 
and Pictou county, N.S., principally, but who came originally from the Highlands and 
Islands of western Scotland, built in Canada wooden ships none of which were more than 
600 tons. In these vessels they set out, via the cape of Good Hope, with their families 
for Australia, which country did not appeal to them for some reason or other. They then 
crossed to New Zealand where they were offered land in Hawkes Bay province (East coast, 
North island). This land they rejected, owing possibly to the Maori war which was raging 
at the time. They eventually settled at Waipu, a few miles south of Whangarei, where 
there was ready access to the sea (their traditional calling), and where there was lumber in 
the hinterland, but where the soil for the most part was of a poor ‘gumland’ type — a heavy 
clay soil said to have been impoverished in the distant past by the Kauri forests that 
formerly grew thereon. These Canadian migrants before leaving P.E. Island and Nova 
Scotia had collected quantities of grass for use as material for filling the mattresses upon 
which they slept on ship-board. Upon landing they took with them these same mattresses 
for use for a short period in the homes which they hewed out of the Auckland forests. 
Eventually the bedding was discarded and the seed in the dry grass thereof found its way 
1 Cf . Wallace, F. W.: “Wooden Ships and Iron Men,” p. 336. Hodder and Stoughton, Ltd., London and Toronto. 
