Seed quality. 
Amount of 
seed per acre. 
Mixtures. 
Reproduction 
by stolons. 
Allied species. 
Explanation 
of plate. 
68 
are firmer and darker in colour, and the lower has a long dorsal awn. The seed of Tufted 
hair-grass (fig. 82) is larger than Fiorin; the stalk and base are hairy; the awn is as long 
as the lower pale and springs from its base; in Silky bent (fig. 29, 
p. 64) the lower pale is covered with short hair; the awn 1s almost 
apical, and 83—5 times as long as the pale. Timothy seed and grains 
of sand often form a large proportion of commercial seed. 
Seed and amounts to be sown. In commercial seed, the naked cary- 
opsis (figs. 7 and 8) rarely occurs ; usually it is enveloped by the pales 
(fig. 5), and often by the glumes as well (fig. 4). On an average, the 
purity is 71.5 %/o and the germination 85 °%/o. Good seed should have 
85 %/o purity and 85 %o germination = 72.3 °%/o of pure and germinating Pitted “hake-cras, 
seed. 1b. of pure seed contains 603,000 grains. The weight per bushel Aira cespitosa, L. 
depends upon the number of glumes left with the seed. If all the Pciceaieuae ies 
clumes are left, the weight per bushel is small, scarcely 8 Ibs. ; but if b. ventral surface ; 
the seed has been well winnowed, the weight may be 32 lbs. or more. ESN SABES 
When kept, the germinating power decreases very little, so that the seed generally ger- 
minates well. The purity of Fiorin seed is often less than it ought to be. 
1 acre of ground requires 9.7 lbs. of seed containing 72 °/o pure and germinating == 
7 lbs. of pure and germinating seed. Using seed at 5 pence per pound, the cost for laying 
down an acre is about 4 shillings. 
Except for forming lawns and occasional pastures Fiorin is never sown pure. In 
permanent mixtures it should be used, but for short leys only on damp soils. In clover 
erass it is out of place. It is not customary to add more than 10 °/o of Fiorin to any 
mixture. 
Fiorin can readily be reproduced by its stolons. For this purpose hichardson recom- 
mended that stolons, harrowed out from broken up Fiorin-grass, should be planted in rows 
4—6 inches apart, or simply spread out on the field and slightly covered over, Sprengel 
advises the cutting of the stolons into pieces about 3 or 4 inches long; these are to be 
sown, slightly covered, and then trodden in by sheep. On moist soils or in wet seasons, 
the nodes soon strike root and send out new shoots. In this way, the ground is more 
rapidly covered with grass than when seed is used. 
An ally of Fiorin, American bent (Agrostis dispar, Mich.) has been recommended for cultivation. 
This is larger than Fiorin; it succeeds on drier and lighter soils, and is, like Fiorin, perennial. 
XII. Reed Canary grass. 
Phalaris arundinacea, L. 
The vegetative organs, shewing the stolons bearing scale-leaves, extravaginal buds, and roots. 
. A panicle in flower. 
The spikelet before flowering, side-view, shewing the outer glumes. 
The same in flower, shewing the three anthers and the two stigmas of the single flower. 
Spikelet before flowering, with the outer glumes removed, side-view; the inner glumes, 
the pales, and the young anthers are seen. 
ah ee 
