TRIANDRIA. DIGYNIA. Agrostis. 
157 
A. alba has long, decumbent^ more or less branching, stems, sending out 
roots from their lower joints. Leaves broad, taper-pointed, ribbed, very 
rough on both sides, especially at the edges. Panicle four to six inches 
long, alternately lobed or divided into several large half-whorled bundles, 
of extremely unequal, angular, rough branches ; the lowermost particu¬ 
larly crowded. Calyx-glumes keeled, acute, slightly unequal, rather 
tumid; their keels either entirely or partially rough with little bristles; 
their sides smooth; their edges not more membranous than the other 
part, in which last character they differ from A. vulgaris. Bloss. of two 
unequal valves; the larger ribbed, and occasionally awned from a little 
below the summit. Styles very short. Summits thick feathery. Calyx 
either greenish white, or brownish purple, but not so constantly in dif¬ 
ferent individuals, as to mark a durable variety. Sm. 
Var. 2. (3 . of Eng. FI. A. stolonifera. Linn. Willd. Knapp. FI. Brit. 
A. alba. Leers 4, 5. Stem more extensively creeping, sometimes float¬ 
ing ; but the chief difference consists in the still more dense and tufted 
lobes of the panicle , as in E. Bot. and Leers 4, 5. Calyx besides is gene¬ 
rally rough all over, with little bristly points. 
In ditches and wet situations, on a clay soil; moist meadows ; also in cold 
stiff’arable land. In a close called the Far Wet Croft at Blymhill, Staf¬ 
fordshire. Rev. S. Dickenson. Near Liverpool. Mr. Shepherd. Banks of 
Tyne and Wear. Mr. Winch. Holyhead. Welsh Bot. By the sides of 
the roads over Denbigh Green, and in various other parts of North 
Wales. E.) 
Var. 3. y of Eng. FI. A. sylvatica. Huds. Linn. Willd. Distinguished 
by an elongation of the Cal. and Bloss. the flowers being imperfect, and 
many of them transformed to leafy buds. Lower branches of the panicle 
abortive. In the woods. 
(Var. 4. Minor. Very diminutive; from two to three inches high ; stiffer 
and more glaucous than the foregoing. Peculiar to the sea-coast. Mr. 
Griffith. E.) 
Marsh Bent Grass. A. alba. Linn. Willd. Sm. FI. Brit. Flock. A. sto¬ 
lonifera latifolia , also A. aristaia, Sine. In moist meadows, and fields 
inundated in autumn. P. July —Aug. E.)* 
* (Notwithstanding some remaining discrepancy in the synonyms of different au¬ 
thors, and our inability to reconcile them, even by a reference to numerous specimens 
which serve but to prove the subtile gradations of these plants, we can be at no loss to 
apply the practical remarks of agriculturists. A. nigra (black couch grass), of With. 
(A^rcpens, of Sincl.) and A. maritima (sea bent grass), of With, should probably be 
comprehended under the present species. The roots of the former are black, and 
smaller than those of Triticum repens (white squitch), and still more pernicious in soils 
where they prevail, because they are wiry, brittle, and more difficult to eradicate. It is 
usual to attempt to destroy either kind of couch-grass by ploughing and pulverizing, in 
aid of which it may be well to employ hand and fork work, with burning. Nor should for¬ 
mer notices of the Fioringrass be here omitted. E.) At Orcheston, St. Mary, about eleven 
miles from Salisbury, is a small tract of meadow land, half a mile from the village of 
Shrewton, which is sometimes watered in the winter by means of aspring flowing out of 
a limestone rock. It is mown twice in the summer, and after a favourable season for 
watering, the first crop is near five tons per acre ; the second about half as much. This 
extraordinary produce excited the attention of the Agricultural Society established at 
Bath, and from the reports made to that society, it appears that the crop principally 
consisted of A. stolonifera. Such also was the opinion of Mr. Stonhouse, who seems first 
to have noticed it in Howe’s Phytologia, p. 51, referring to Gerard 26. 1. The attention 
which Mr. Swayne has since given to this subject, makes it probable that this grass is 
