154 
TRIANDRIA. DIGYNIA. Agrostis, 
Sir J. E. Smith, Professor Hooker, and Mr. Bicheno, have laboured at 
their elucidation, and the result of their respective researches, in the 
most material points, happily coincides. They have at least succeeded 
in simplifying this genus, by reducing the number of supposed species ; 
and the student will perceive that we have availed ourselves of these 
advantages, by (so far as was compatible with our own conviction) 
adopting the most recent characters and arrangement of the above-named 
authorities. E.) 
(1) With Awns. 
A. spica-ven'ti. (Awn straight, rigid, several times longer than the 
blossom: panicle loosely spreading. Sm. 
E. Bot. 951. E.)~ -FI. Dan. 853 —H. Ox. viii. 5, row 2. 3— J. B. ii. 462— 
Leers 4. 1— Scheuch. 3. 10. 
(Root of many thick, whorled fibres. E.) Straw smoothish, two or three 
feet high. Leaves flat, rough. Sheath-scale fringed. Panicle eight to 
twelve inches long, (somewhat silky in appearance, leaning to one side, 
often purplish. E.); branches from two to four inches. Calyx valves 
nearly equal, one of them slightly serrulated. Blossom , valves equal in 
length, the inner narrower. Awn straight, near thrice the length of the 
blossom, and fixed immediately below its point. 
Silky Bent Grass. Sandy-fields, common, particularly amongst corn. 
A. June—Aug.* 
(A. cani'na. Awn incurved from below the middle of the blossom; 
inner valve obsolete: calyx ovate, coloured: stems decumbent, 
with prostrate shoots: stipula lanceolate. 
E. Bot. 1856— Knapp. 21— Leers 4. 2— Scheuch. 3. 9. c. 
Root creeping, with downy fibres. Stems taking root at the lower joints ; 
from one to three feet long. Leaves roughish on both sides, narrow, 
especially in the radical tufts, where they are setaceous, and by the 
presence of such tufts this species is readily distinguished from the 
awned varieties of A. vulgaris. Stipula elongated, finally torn: in 
vulgaris it is extremely short. Panicle spreading when in flower, other¬ 
wise collected into close tufts. Fhwers erect, shining. Valves of the 
calyx purple, occasionally yellow. Bloss. white or greenish; smaller 
valve often entirely wanting, sometimes diminutive. Sm. 
Var. 2. Awnless; (according to Dr. Withering, merely from the awn 
being, as is the smaller valve of the blossom, occasionally deciduous. E.) 
Brown Bent Grass. A. canina. Linn. Willd. Hook. Leers. A. vinealis. 
With. ed. 6. Meadows and pastures common. P. June—July. Sm. E.) 
* It is liable to be smutted. Stokes. Horses and goats eat it, sheep refuse it. (After the 
spring-sown corn has vegetated, until the harvest, flocks of pigeons may be observed, 
with the most patient perseverance picking a precarious sustenance from the immature 
seeds and panicles of the grasses, justly remarked in the old couplet, 
“ The pigeon never knoweth woe 
Until a benting she doth go.” 
Sheep never touch the stalks of grasses in general; and it may be here observed, with 
Mr. White, that rabbits make incomparably the finest turf, for they not only bite closer 
than larger quadrupeds, but they allow no bents to rise s hence warrens produce much 
the most delicate turf for gardens. E.) 
