( 28 ) 



VI. Ohferval'ions on the Orchejicn lojig Grafs. By JFiUiam George tvUhn, 



M.B. F.L.S. 



Raid December \, 179S. 



IT innfl: have been a matter of much furprize to many befides 

 myfelf, reflefting how long the Orchefton grafs has been known, 

 and how frequent the oppoitiniities have been for a full and accu- 

 rate examination of it by botanifls and agriculturifts, that its hif- 

 tory was fo very contradictory and incomplete. It was not until 1 

 vifited the meadow, and paid confiderable attention to its produce, 

 that I difcovered the caufe of this. The faft is, that the grafs was 

 examined by the different perfons who have written upon the fub- 

 je(Sl of it at very different feafons of the year, and each taking it for 

 "•ranted that it was a peculiar fpecies, or at any rate a peculiar va- 

 riety of fome one fpecies, made his report on that one only which 

 chanced to be in its perfeftion at the period of his infpeftion. 

 Hence one gentleman, who vifited the fpot about the latter end of 

 July, pronounces the Orchefton grafs to be exclufively Agrofih Jlolo- 

 nifera*. Another, happening to obtain his fpecimens earlier in the 

 year, fays, that Poa trivialh is the fpecies t- Another obferver, 

 bearing ftedfaftly in mind that it has been defcribed as a peculiar 

 grafs, increafes the uncertainty, by declaring that, " by all the en- 

 quiries he has made, he has not found that this fpecies of grafs 



• See Memoirs of the Bath Society, vol- i. p- 93- 



f Withering' s Bot. Arr. of Britip Plants, vol. ii. p. 144. 



grows 



