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into the clay soil, in which new environment it found a congenial home, for it has spread 
wonderfully in the neighbourhood of Waipu and on the ‘gumlands’ generally. In the 
course of time seed came to be gathered from it, the new industry centring around the 
settlement of Waipu, to such an extent indeed that the grass came to be called in New 
Zealand Waipu Brown Top. Thus it is readily seen that this grass which we call in Canada 
Colonial bent ( Agrostis tenuis) had its origin in the Maritime Provinces of Canada, and, 
to my mind, is none other than Rhode Island bent or, as we prefer to call it in Canada, 
Prince Edward Island bent. Possibly change of environment and natural selection have 
given rise to a strain or strains slightly different from the bent grown today as Prince 
Edward Island bent in Canada.” 
In a postscript to the letter quoted above Dr. McTaggart adds : 
“I feel that the above can be taken as authentic. The statements contained in the 
above were made to me from time to time by representatives of Waipu families or by 
those well qualified to speak of the experience of the Waipu settlers.” 
Velvet bent, or Brown bent (Plate XVI, figure 1), is a species which 
so far has not been handled in its pure form by the Canadian trade. Accord- 
ing to Piper and Oakley (28, p. 75) “the seed is nearly always found in 
Creeping bent, sometimes to the extent of 40 per cent of the whole.” At 
present, as has already been indicated, it is being propagated for commerce 
from seed harvested practically pure on Prince Edward Island. Velvet 
bent is a more or less loosely tufted grass with short, very narrow-leaved 
basal shoots and commonly also with creeping surface runners. It grows 
to about the same height as Rhode Island bent which, to some extent, 
it also resembles habitually. It produces, however, a much smoother 
turf and is no doubt the finest of all the bent grasses for lawns and greens. 
“The Seeds Act, 1923,” gives the name A. canina. It is not listed in 
“Standardized Plant Names.” 
Carpet bent is a bent grass occurring in so-called South German 
Mixed bent. It produces 
“Creeping runners 3 or 5 feet long the first season, making circular mats 5 to 7 feet in 
diameter, and with relatively few flowering culms. It is by this stoloniferous character 
that carpet bent is most strikingly distinguished from Rhode Island bent, but the ligules 
are long and the flowering panicles rather dense” (Piper, 27, pp. 11-12). 
From this description it seems apparent that Carpet bent is one of 
the many forms of Creeping bent. It should be noted that Piper and 
Oakley do not mention it in the 1923 edition of “Turf for Golf Courses.” 
It is listed, however, in “Standardized Plant Names,” with Creeping bent 
as a synonym, under the name of Agrostis stolonifera, and it is largely on 
that account that it is mentioned here. 
THE TAXONOMY OF THE COMMERCIAL BENT GRASSES 
It is obvious, from the preceding, that there exists a very confusing 
instability in the application of technical names to at least some of the 
most important trade varieties of bent grasses, an instability paralleled 
by the divergency of opinion, concerning the systematic status of the 
various forms, which is found in North American floras and other scientific 
publications dealing with the subject. 
Names Used in North American Literature 
The species and varieties of bent grasses with which we are concerned 
belong to two well-defined sections of the genus Agrostis, viz.: 
Sect. I. Euagrostis Gren. and Godr., FI. Fr. Ill, 480, 1856. 
