188 HORTUS GRAMINEUS WOBURNENSIS. 



matter than the grass at the time of flowering ; but this is owing 

 to the property it possesses, of sending forth a succession of 

 flowering culms till the frost, arrests it; and hence the trivial 

 names, fertilis and seroiiita, fertile and late-flowering meadow- 

 grass, quoted above. M. Host* mentions, that it is natural to 

 moist pastures and the banks of rivers ; and Schrader remarks 

 also, that in Germany it grows in meadows, vineyards, marshes, 

 walls, and elsewhere, not unfrequently. I have found it to grow 

 on almost every kind of soil ; but it attains to the greatest perfec- 

 tion in a rich moist one. Hares and rabbits are very fond of it. 

 It is one of those grasses that thrive best when combined with 

 others : it will not make a superior turf of itself, but it adds much 

 toi the value of a sward from its nutritive qualities and powers of 

 early and late growth. As it perfects an abundance of seed, it 

 may be easily propagated. 



By comparing its produce of nutritive matter, from one acre, 

 with those of the cock's-foot, meadow-foxtail, and sweet-scented 

 vernal grasses, it will be found superior to foxtail in the pro- 

 portion of 5 to 3, and only inferior to the cock's-foot in the 

 proportion of 7 to 5. 



Sir Humphry Davy has shewn that its nutritive matter consists 

 of mucilage, 65 ; saccharine matter, or sugar, 6 ; extractive matter, 

 7 = 78. 



From these facts and observations it will appear, that the 

 fertile meadow-grass deserves a place in the composition of 

 rich pastures, and ranks with the superior grasses of irrigated 

 meadows. 



It flowers in the beginning of July, and the seed is ripe 

 towards the end of the month. 



LATHYRVS pratensis. Yellow Vetchling, Tare Everlasting. 



Specific character: Tendrils with 2 leaves, quite simple; leafets 



spear-shaped. 

 Tendrils sometimes 3-cleft. (Linn.) 

 Native of Britain. Root creeping. Perennial. E. Bot. 670; 



Fl. Dan. 527; Wither. Arr. vol. ii. p. 619; Anderson's 



Essays. 



* Nic. Thomx Host Icones et Descriptiones Giaminum Aubtiiacorum. 



