8 V Bulletin Number 124. . °   `
V , ` English bluegrass is specified in our law under the name Fos-. _`
tuna. elatior pratensis. It is a good grass also, and lasts longer. than
Y ; 1 the rye-grasses, but at the end of- four or five years becomes greatly 4
o I   E reduced and crab grass and other weeds soon crowd it out. No doubt
`     ‘ it would last longer on soils to which it is better_ adapted. Its near
at   relative, the tall meadow fescue (Festuca, elot¢Qor),_has, on the `»
- is   t contrary, proved in our plots one of the mostnearly perennial of all
`   g I the grasses tested by us. It does not yield jnethis respect to either
  .   t orchard grass or Kentucky bluegrass. It   certainly an excellent . ,
V     grass, and should be grown here instead_ of the shorter-lived and — ~
{ ` less aggressive F. pratensis. I think our seedsmen have not yet
  _ become familiar with the difference between the two. The seeds are —
    l much alike, but the plants are more widely different in character
` ; fj Q { and durability than are the two rye-grasses. Festuca elatior pm- is
»     temis is- certainly not adaptedcto Bluegrass Kentucky. »
      An adulterant not mentioned in our law was found in one .
    i sample recently received from Campbellsville, Kentucky. It is
    the seeds of Velvet grass `(Holcus Z!]/I7Zl»tuS),’ a grass very rarely
      grown in Kentucky, though sometimes to be observed in meadows
.i.=gK;i     where it has been sown with other grass seed. The seeds are fre-
  l i quently found in samples of orchard grass seed, but in such small e U
  .`.’ fi { J quantity that their presence seems to beaccidental. In the case ·
    { mentioned fifteen per cent. of the seeds together with some cheat
v.'‘     seeds, were separated from the sample, Velvet grass is common
 n`    in European countries, which suggests that the orchard grass from \
  —'.i     which the sample came was harvested abroad. Our growers could _ °
  T hardly afford to use such an adulterant. The scales in which the U
    I seeds are enclosed are much shorter and more compressed than -
    those of orchard grass. Examples measure about 0.20 inch long, ~
    and are sharply keeled, with fine cilia along keel and veryiine pubes- v'
    cence on the surface. The seed itself, enclosed in, these downy
    empty scales, is small, thickest at the middle and pointed at ._
  Q each end. Its outer coat is formed of scales which have become -
  * hard and glossy. The uppermost end bears a bent bristle at its "
  tip. Slender white hairs arise from its base and extend upward I
  two-thirds the distance to the tip. Fig. 7, A.
  I The weed seeds found in orchard grass seeds are not numerous,
  ¥* I ` ,
—-z\‘r‘ {
»,;;,___ ,  1
 s  ?