190 HORTUS GRAMINEUS WOBURNENSIS. 



Parts. 



Mucilage - - - - 37 



Bitter extractive and saline matters - 31 



Saccharine matter - - - 2 



Insoluble matter - - - 30 



100 

 Sir H. Davy has shewn, that red clover contains in every 100 

 parts of its nutritive matter — 



Parts. 

 Mucilage, or starch - - _ 79|. 



Saccharine matter, or sugar - - 7i 



Gluten, or albumen - - - 5 



Extract, or insoluble matter - - 8 



100 

 Sir Humphry Davy has shewn likewise, that the plants most 

 liked by cattle have either a saline or subacid taste, as in the 

 instances of red and white clovers, and the superior grasses. 

 This plant, however, has a greater excess of the bitter extractive 

 and saline matters, in proportion to that contained in these plants, 

 when compared to the rest of the pasture grasses. It is nauseous 

 to the taste. From these facts and observations, it does not seem 

 to be a plant that possesses unequivocal merits for admission into 

 the composition of pasture. It attains to the greatest size on 

 tenacious clayey soils. 



POA nervata. Nerved Meadow-grass. 



Specific character: Panicle upright ; spikelets smooth, 5-flovvered, 

 nerved. — Fig. 1. Spikelets magnified, shewing the nerved 

 or ribbed valves. 2. Calyx. 



Obs. — Panicle often half a foot and more in length, with 

 slender branches, pressed close, and subdivided; spikelets 

 small, of a green colour ; valves of the blossom smooth, 

 having five raised nerves on each valve ; leaves in two rows, 

 resembling a fan, somewhat rough ; culm a little com- 

 pressed. 



Native of North America. Root perennial. Willdenow. Spec. 

 Plant. 389. 



