122 
When transferred to A. stolonifera L., the name becomes A. stolonifera 
L. var. major (Gaud.) Farwell, Mich. Acad. Sci. Rept. 21, 351, 1919. 
The Creeping bent of the trade, as has been pointed out in the pre- 
ceding, is not a monotypic variety, but includes a number of races, all 
having long stolons which trail on the surface of the ground and root more 
or less freely at the nodes. The economically most valuable races of 
Creeping bent and at the same time botanically the most extreme forms 
of A. stolonifera L. have a narrow panicle which becomes contracted and 
more or less spike-like after flowering. It is to this extreme element of 
the species that it is desirable to apply a scientific varietal name. The 
oldest valid varietal name appears to be A. stolonifera L. var. compacta 
Hartm. 1 Hartman’s description (8, p. 19), which dates from 1832, trans- 
lated from the Swedish, reads as follows: “A stolonifera L. 0. compacta: 
panicle dense, the culm branched, creeping.” 
SYNOPSIS OF THE SPECIES AND VARIETIES AND THEIR 
DISTRIBUTION IN CANADA 
Key to the Species 
1. Palea about half as long as the lemma or longer. 
2. Ligule of the lower and middle leaves 2-5 mm. long, rounded 
at apex 1. A. stolonifera. 
2. Ligule of the lower and middle leaves 0*5-1 -3 mm. long, 
truncate at apex 2. A. tenuis. 
1. Palea minute or wanting 3. A. canina. 
1. A. stolonifera L. 
A. stolonifera L., Sp. Plant, 62, 1753. 
A. alba L. of most North American authors; very doubtfully A. alba 
L., Sp. Plant, 63, 1753. 
A. vulgaris With., Hook., FI. II, 239; Pursh, FI. I, 63; in Macoun, 
Cat. Can. PL, pt. IV, 200, 1898, in part; and var. alba Vasey, 
Cat. Grasses U.S., 47, 1885, in Macoun, Lc. 201. 
Not A. stolonifera L., in Hitchcock, N. Am., Sp. Agrostis, Bul. 68, 
U.S.D. Agr., 24, 1905. 
Not A. stolonifera L., in Rydberg, FI. Ry. Mts., 54, 1917. 
Perennial. Loosely tufted or matted, usually with stolons, creeping 
on or below the surface of the soil. Culms erect, ascending, or decumbent, 
up to about 1 m. high. Leaves 2-10 mm. wide; the ligule 2-5 mm. long, 
rounded at apex. Panicle from broadly pyramidal with the branches 
spreading after flowering to linear with the bi*anches erect and appressed 
after flowering; varying in t^olour from dark purple to straw colour and 
whitish or greenish. Spikelets 2-3*5 mm. long. Lemma 1*5-2 *2 mm. 
long, generally without awn. Palea about two-thirds the length of the 
lemma or longer. (Mostly nat. from Eur.) A very variable species, the 
extreme varieties being: 
i Specimens of Creeping bent with short, contracted panicle and creeping surface stolons, collected by the writer 
in the vicinity of Ottawa, Ont., were, some time ago, submitted to Mr. Otto It. Holm berg, Editor of the 1922 edition 
of Hartman’s Handbook of the Flora of Scandinavia, who kindly examined them and identified them with A. 
stolonifera L, var. compacta Hartm. 
