429 
late, not very productive, and contains less nutritive matter than the 
other more cultivated grasses. The straw is very fine and tough, being 
excellent for braiding into hats, &c. It also bleaches well. 
19. Agrostis Scabra. Willdenow. 
Syn.— A. laxiflora, Richards. A. Michauxii, Trin. A. oreophila, 
Trin. Trichodium laxiflorum, Michx. T. montanum Torr. T. scabrura, 
Muhl. Thin grass, hair-grass. 
Culms very slender, erect, smooth ; leaves short and narrow; panicle 
very loose and divergent, purplish, the long capillary branches flower¬ 
bearing at and near the apex ; lower palea awnless or occasionally short 
awned on the back, shorter than the rather unequal very acute glumes ; 
the upper minute or obsolete. Perennial; flowers in June and July ; 
culms 1 to 2 feet high. 
Very abundant in Wisconsin, especially about the prairies; also in 
Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and about Lake Superior. 
The large panicles are extremely delicate, and when mature are easily 
separated from the culm. In this condition they are blown about by 
every wind, scattering the seed far and wide ; this being one of the con¬ 
trivances by which nature distributes the seeds of plants very pKofusely, 
and explains the appearance of grass in certain places where it had not 
been before observed, and where no seed had been planted by the hand 
of man. 
20. Agrostis Perennans. Gray. 
Syn. —Cornucopiae perennans, Walt. Trichodium perennans, Ell. T. 
decumbens, Michx. T. scabrum, Muhl—(not Agrostis scabra, Willd). 
Agrostis anomala, Willd. 
v 
Culms slender, erect from a decumbent base ; leaves flat; panicle at 
length diffusely spreading, pale green, the branches short, divided and 
flower-bearing from, or below the middle ; lower palea awnless (rarely 
short-awned,) shorter than the unequal glumes; the upper minute or 
obsolete. 
Damp, shady places. Perennial; flowering in July and August. Culms 
1 to 2 feet high. Milwaukee, in Wisconsin; also in Ohio and Michigan. 
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