Timothy grass or “meadow catstail” (Fig. 106) has a general resemblance to meadow foxtail, but its ears are rough to the touch and green in colour. It also flowers much later in the year (July) and its pales are awnless; the two grasses are therefore easily distinguished. Timothy grows abundantly in clay soils, forming fairly close tufts. Fig. 107.—Yorkshire Fog. (× ⅙.) Fig. 108.—Wild Oat. (× ⅙.) Yorkshire fog (Fig. 107) is a rank weed which is distasteful to cattle, partly because it is covered with hairs and is difficult to wet, and partly because it has a bitter flavour. It is pale in colour and soft. It spreads rapidly by means of creeping stolons. Oat grasses are of several species; one is cultivated as a cereal, others are valued as forage for cattle, while others still are [Pg 137] troublesome weeds. The wild oat (Fig. 108) is a common weed in cornfields. It is an annual, from two or three feet high, with large spikelets forming a loose panicle, the flowers having awns twice as long as the spikelets. The cultivated oat is supposed to be a variety of the wild oat. The panicle of the yellow oat grass is oblong, and has erect spikelets. Fig. 109.—Perennial Rye Grass. (× ⅙.) Fig. 110.—Sweet-scented Vernal Grass. (× ⅙.) The perennial rye grass (Fig. 109) is very easily recognised by its flattened ears of alternate, stalkless spikelets. Each spikelet has only one glume. The leaves are dark-green and glossy, and the leaf-sheaths are flattened instead of being round, as is the case with most grasses. This is one of the most valuable of forage grasses. Sweet-scented vernal grass (Fig. 110) does not occur very [Pg 138] abundantly in meadows and pastures, but the fragrance of new-mown hay is almost wholly attributed to it. The odour can be distinctly perceived when a stalk of the grass is chewed. The leaves are somewhat hairy and are broad and flat. The spikelets are borne on short stalks. The flowers open early and are remarkable in possessing only two stamens instead of three. Rushes and sedges are monocotyledonous plants which are often erroneously called grasses. The stems of rushes are vivid green, round, and pointed, and contain a distinct pith. The flowers (Fig. 111) are never in spikelets; they contain six stamens, and the pistil has three long stigmas. The sedges, like grasses, have narrow, pointed leaves, but the ligules are either very small or absent, and the leaf-sheaths are not split. The flowers are often in spikelets with glumes, as are grass flowers. The stems of sedges are solid and triangular. Fig. 111.—A Rush. a, flowering part of stem; single flower (b) and pistil (c) more highly magnified.