" T [ 1856 ]
AGROS T IS canina.
Brown Bent-grass.
TRIANDRIA Digynia.
G en. C har. Cal. of 2 acute valves, single-flowered.
Cor. of 2 unequal membranous valves. Stigmas
feathery.
S pec. C h ar. Calyx ovate, coloured, with one valve
rough.. Corolla naked, with a dorsal incurved awn.
Stems prostrate, somewhat branched.
S yn. Agrostis canina. Linn. Sp. PI. 92. Sm. FI.
Brit. 78. Huds. 30, a. Relh. 26. Sibth. 36.
Abbot. 14. Knapp t\ 21.
A . vinealis. With. 127.' Hull. 18.
B y no means rare in damp fields, boggy places, or ditches,
flowering the end of June or beginning of July.
Root perennial, creeping, its fibres downy. Stems several,
forming a dense tuft, creeping and prostrate except the flowering
part, which grows ascending or erect. Leaves narrow,
light green, roughish on both sides. Stipula minute. Panicle
upright; its branches in half whorls, rough, compound,
slender. Flowers erect, ovate, shining. Calyx purple, of
two nearly equal valves, the larger rough at the back. Corolla
white; one valve very minute; the other scarcely so long as
the calvx, cloven, bearing from near its base a brownish incurved
awn, jointed in the middle, about twice as long as the
valve.
W e know of no agricultural use for this grass. Its herbage
is trifling, but grows so as to occupy much space, and becomes
dry and parched often at a very early period.