38 DIANDRIA. DIGYNIA. Anthoxanthum. 



There is no mention of the place of growth of this curiosity, 

 but the sensible and intelligent reporter could not well be de- 



©dora'tum 



ceived about it. 



and 



friend Dr. Bostock has supplied me with specimens of it from a 

 plantation near Liverpool* 



DIGYNIA. 



ANTHOXANTHUM. Cal Husk of 1 valves, 



and 1 flower: BIoss. husk 2 valves, tapering 

 to a point : Seed 1 . 



O DO I I " 



supported on short fruit-stalks. 



Curt.-E. boU 6±7~Scbreb. 5-MiH. UL-Giseke. 



2-Fl. dan. 666-S 'tilling./. 1. out of bloss.-Mus. rust, iv, 



2. 3-J. B. ii. 466. l-Anders.-Barr.-VU> single spike 



good~C. B. 44. 1-/7. ox. viii. 4. row 2. 25. and ?• r o<w 



3. 0.5-Spike and fructijicationy Leers 2. i-Seguier. U 4* 2- 

 Mont. 84. 



Bloss. double. The outer entirely different from that of any 

 other of the Grasses, its outside covered to near the top with stiff 

 brown hairs lying flat. The inner, which Linnaeus calls the 





goats eat it : but it spoils the milk of cows, so that it should not be 

 planted in dairy farms. In the north of Lancashire they lop the tops of 

 this tree to feed the cattle in autumn when the grass is upon the decline, 

 the cattle peeling off the bark as food. — In a very dry summer the farmers 

 about Cannock, Staffordshire, in default of grass icd their cows with the 

 leaves. St. — In Queen Elizabeth's time, the Inhabitants of Col ton and 

 Haivkshcadfells remonstrated against the number of forges in the country, 

 because they consumed all the loppings and croppings, the sole winter 

 food for their cattle. Penn. tour 1772. p. 29— When growing by the water 

 side, and of some considerable age, its branches frequently hang down 

 somewhat in the manner of the weeping willow. The roots run near the 

 surface, and extend themfelves to a great distance, whence it is destructive 

 to the herbage of upland pastures, but if planted on the margins of tlie 

 ditches, or low boggy meadows, the roots act as underdrains, and render 

 the ground about them firm and hard ; the wood is however in this case 

 but of little value. Mr. Woodward.— -It will give a good though not 

 beautiful green to cloths which have been blued. St. — The wood hath 

 the singular advantage of being nearly as good when young as when old. 

 It is hard and tough, and is much used to make the tools employed fa 

 husbandry. The ashes of the wood afford very good pot-ash — The bark 

 is used for tanning calf-skin. — A slight infusion of it appears of a pale 

 yellowish colour when viewed between the eye and the light ; but when 

 looked down upon or placed between the eye and an opake object, it » 

 blue. This blueness is destroyed by the addition of an acid, and alkalies 

 recover it again.— An infusion of the leaves, from half an ounce to an 



ounce an4 a half, is a very good purge, and a decoction of % drams of the 



bark, 







