

TRIANDRIA. DIGYNIA. Poa. 145 



(2) Panicle slender, compact. 



P. Panicle spike-like: Calyx husks rather hairv, 2 or 3 crista 'ta. 



(rarely) 4 -flowered, longer than the little fruit-stalk: 

 petals awned, awn- pointed. 



E. Bot. 6i$-H. ox. viii. ±.,7-Pluk. 33. 7-Leers 5. 6. 



Root rather bulbous. Straw about a foot high, curved at the 

 base, above quite straight, upright smooth. Leaves short, slen- 

 der, only rough towards the end. Sheaths smoothish. Panicle 

 2« inches high, less than \ inch broad. Calyx 2 or 3-flowered, 

 larger valve awn-pointed. Bloss. larger valve, tapering into a 

 longer slender point, but not properly awned. 



Crested Meadow-grass. Aira cristata y Sp. pi. High barren 



pastures. [On the edge of a Marl Rock, Clarkton Leap, near 

 Worcester. St. — On Wick Cliffs. Mr. Swayne. — Baydales, 

 near Darlington. Mr. Robson. — Henllan Village. Mr. Grif- 

 fith. July. 



P. Panicle slender, open when in flower : spikets mostly nemora'lis* 



2-flowered, pointed, rough : straw feeble. 



on the ground, and had put forth roots at the knots (geniculi) and began 

 to be erect only at the last knot or two. I was informed that these mea- 

 dows are mown twice annually, the first time the latter end of May or 

 beginning of June, and the second time the latter end of July or beginning 

 of August. It will readily occur to you, that no grasses but those that 



j flower early could be in bloom at the first mowing, and that whatever 



grasses are in blossom at the last mowing must be of the late flowering 



I kinds. Mr. Davies says, in his Wiltshire Report to the Board of Agricul- 



ture, that Mr. Sole has determined the Orcheston grass to be the Agrcstis 

 itotonifa-a, and probably that grass may be predominant, perhaps the only 



I grass in flower, at the time of the last mowing, but I think it can make 



J no part of the first crop.*' Mr. Swayne. — On the supposition that the 



grass constituting the great crop of this enviable meadow is at length 

 ascertained, it follows that its great fertility is not merely owing to the 

 kind of grass, for that is not uncommon on the sides of broad wet ditches, 

 and with us begins to flower the first week in June. But it has been 

 observed that the crop in the Orcheston meadow depends much upon the 

 flooding of it in the winter. I will hazard a conjecture, that the advan- 



t ta §es in flooding land, depend less upon any supposed quality of the 

 *ater, than upon its temperature. That when brought over the turf soon 

 after it issues from the spring, as is the case at Orcheston, it enjoys a 

 temperature equal to 48 or 49 degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer, which 

 11 communicates to the surface of the meadow and to the roots of the 

 &rass, whilst the temperature of the atmosphere is much lower; so that 

 lts action is similar to that of a hot wall upon the branches of fruit-trees. 

 --In Lin. trans, vol. 5, Mr. Matonsays he is satisfied that the long grass 

 °f Orclieston is not only not a species peculiar to the spot, but that it is 

 composed of most of the species which grow in other meadows/ ■ and this 

 certainly appears the most probable solution of the mystery, especially 

 ^hen we consider the peculiarly sheltered situation and rich soil of the 

 galley, and that vegetation in general there assume* a gigantick form. — 

 *}!• Maton asserts, that the space of only two acres and a half ha$ 

 yielded as much as ten tons of hay in one year, but that the crops are 

 not now equal to what they were formerly. 



Vol. II. L 



