GRASS TRIBE 75 
of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, where it is sometimes cut down three 
times in a year, forming not only a rich pasturage all the summer, but con- 
stituting a large portion of the winter fodder for animals. It grows not only 
on the moist lands watered by rivers, but in the water itself, and may be 
seen rising above the elegant leaves of the arrow-head, and the broad foliage 
and rose-coloured flowers of the water plantain, and waving about like a 
plume far above the surface of the stream. Owing to the rapid growth of 
this, as, indeed, of most aquatic plants, it soon fills up the standing pools, 
and even when the water of the river runs but slowly it gains ground very 
quickly, sending out its powerful creeping stems, and taking firm hold of the 
soil. On this account it sometimes proves a formidable impediment to the 
drainage of moist districts. Curtis says of it that the waters in the Isle of 
Ely become so encroached upon by this and other aquatics that they are 
obliged to be cleansed by an instrument called a bear, which being drawn 
up and down the streams tears up the water-plants by their roots. 
The large, repeatedly branched panicle of this grass is, during July and 
August, composed of a great number of brownish-green spikelets ; the 
slender branches of the panicle are rough, the leaves are long, broad, and of 
a bright green colour, taper-pointed, and smooth. The plant when dry is 
used by country people in packing goods, and also mingles with the stems of 
other large grasses and sedges in the thatch of the barn or cottage. This 
and the following five species are detached by some authors to comprise the 
genus Gilyceria. 
2. Floating Meadow-grass (P. jiiituns).—Panicle nearly erect, very 
long, and slightly branched ; spikelets long, slender, roundish, but slightly 
flattened, with many flowers ; outer flowering glume very long, with seven 
prominent ribs and a ragged tip; rootstock creeping and perennial. This 
thick, succulent grass often grows abundantly in ditches and stagnant waters, 
its stem rising to the height of three feet, with long, narrow, pale green 
leaves, rough on both sides, often folded at the keel. The nearly erect 
panicle expands in July and August, and we have seen it lingering yet amidst 
the November gales. It is long and slender, with slightly roughish branches, 
arranged usually in twos and threes. The spikelets, which are varied with 
pale delicate green and white, and have purplish anthers, are sometimes on 
short, undivided stalks. The seeds of this plant are large, but in this 
country are not plentifully produced. They are almost as nutritive as grains 
of wheat, and are in some countries used as food. These seeds constitute 
the manna-seeds of commerce, and in Holland, as well as in some parts of 
Poland and Germany, they are gathered in great quantities, and used for 
food. De Theis remarked, that he had seen the Polanders in the suite of 
King Stanislaus gather these manna-seeds on the banks of the Meurtha. It 
is abundant in Germany, on the margin of standing waters, as well as on 
very wet meadows; and Meyen observes of it, that “round Berlin, where 
the plant grows singly, no one thinks of the well-tasted seeds which it bears ; 
but further east, in East Prussia, Masuria, and the Lower Vistula, it grows 
in such quantities that the seeds are gathered with great profit, without the 
plants having been previously sown.” Several fine kinds of groats for gruel 
are made of these seeds, and they are sold in shops under the name of manna- 
10—2 
