AGROSTIS STOLONIFERA. {spec.gfe
Small clustered Bent.
Spec. Char. Panicle branched; secondary branches clustered with florets at their base, primary
ones bare at the base •, calyx valves, one with spines on the keel, the other smooth.
Agrostis stolonifera is one of the latest flowering o f .the genus, generally inhabiting moist places
in a clayey or retentive soil: leaves rough on both sides, .sheathing roughish: to the eye o f an indifferent
observer the branches of this Agrostis appear quite crowded with florets from their insertion in
the main stem to their termination, but it will be found that the smaller ones only are clustered, and
that the larger branches are naked near their base, which being covered by the smaller or secondary
ones, gives the whole panicle an uniform and dense appearance. A blight occasionally infects this
Agrostis, the whole of the branches then become perfectly dense with florets in every part, the panicle
assuming the appearance of a spike (Fig. 2 ), but the corolla will be found to be infertile, and filled
with a black powder.------ Agrostis stolonifera produces several varieties, and by intermediate stages
forms such a connection with A. vulgaris that the distinctions o f the two are lost in the union: these
varieties however form an herbage that is locally valuable,- and in deep spongy meadows often constitute
the chief part of the crop, becoming towards autumn stoloniferous, covering the ground with luxuriant
runners: we find them at the base and in the descents o f high hills, but though in those' situations
not producing very abundant suckers, yet they afford the prime pasturage of the sheep, • and by vegetating
late become in perfection towards the end o f August and September, constituting a great portion
o f the autumn shoot, affording then a welcome pasturage, which is readily cropped down by the flocks
that hrowse on those eminences.
A, the Calyx.
B, the Corolla.
(See the supplementary Plates.)