Ill 
As will be seen from the above, some floras maintain that the various 
forms belong to one species, whereas others, going to the other extreme, 
recognize as much as four separate species. A similar variation of opinion 
is found in other botanical and agricultural botanical works. 
Thus, Macoun (24, pp. 200-1) records A. vulgaris With. (A. poly- 
morpha Trim var. a., A. hispida Willd.) and A. vulgaris With. var. alba 
Vasey (A. alba L., A. decumbens Muhl.) with the remark that they are the 
Redtop and Herd’s grass of the agriculturists. 
Beal (2, pp. 332-33) describes A. alba L. — Redtop, Creeping bent, 
Fiorin — as a very variable species. Quoting Watson, Bot. Cal. 271, 1880, 
he considers A. vulgaris a mere variety: “A. alba has an elongated acute 
ligule, and the panicle contracted after flowering; the form once known 
as the species A. vulgaris has a short truncate ligule, and the panicle more 
or less spreading”. 
Hitchcock (11, pp. 25-28) first recognized only one species, with three 
varieties, as follows: Agrostis alba L. (A. dispar Michx., Vilfa dispar 
Beauv., A. vulgaris alba Vasey), A. alba vulgaris (With.) Thurb. (A. 
vulgaris With., A. alba minor Vasey), A. alba aristata Gray (A. stricta 
Willd., A. neogoea Steud.), A. alba maritima (Lam.) Meyer (A. mari- 
tima Lam.). 
Later, however, Hitchcock (12, pp. 125-29) changed his -concept of 
the bent grasses in question and admitted three main species, viz. : Agrostis 
stolonifera L., A. palustris Huds. (A. alba of authors) — Redtop, and 
A. capillaris L. (A. tenuis Sibth,, A. vulgaris With., A. alba vulgaris 
Thurb.) — Rhode Island bent. Hitchcock furthermore considers that 
Carpet bent, also called Creeping bent, is a form of A. stolonifera. The 
taxonomic status of Fiorin is not definitely expressed, it being merely 
stated that “it has been called A. maritima Lam. and A. alba maritima 
(Lam.) Meyer”. 
Clark and Malte (4, pp. 50-52) maintain two species, viz.: A. stolon- 
ifera L. (A. alba L.) — Redtop, Fiorin grass, Creeping bent grass, White 
bent grass, and A. vulgaris With. No popular name is given to the 
latter species, but the author’s conception of it is that of Rhode Island 
bent. 
Piper (27, p. 3) recognizes three species of the group under discussion, 
viz.: A. palustris Huds. (A. alba of most botanists) — Redtop, A. mari- 
tima Lam. (A. stolonifera var. latifolia Sinclair) — Fiorin, and A. tenuis 
Sibth. (A. vulgaris With.) — Rhode Island bent. 
Later, Piper and Oakley (28, pp. 67-71) adopt other names for the 
same types of Bent grasses, as follows: Agrostis alba — Redtop, A. 
stolonifera — Creeping bent, and A. vulgaris — Rhode Island bent. 
From the above examples, to which others could be added, it is appar- 
ent, in the first place, that the various forms are rated very differently, 
from a taxonomic point of view, by different botanists and, secondly, that 
there exists a very confusing divergency of opinion as to what technical 
names should be applied. Any effort to try to bring some kind of order 
out of the existing chaos must, therefore, be directed towards two main 
objects, viz.: 
(1) To determine the systematic relationship between the various 
forms, and 
(2) To determine what technical names should be applied. 
56986—8 
