HORTUS GRAMINEUS WOBURNENSIS. 279 



guished in the autumn by its shoots, which are furnished with 

 leaves in tufts or bundles, that generally run along on the surface 

 of the rest of the herbage, and is occasioned, apparently, by the 

 cattle, which eat the other herbage, and leave the scattered shoots 

 of the tufted-leaved bent untouched. It is a very common grass 

 on poor, light, but moist soils, incumbent on clay, that have long 

 been under pasture. This and the woolly soft-grass, in some 

 parts of the country, are termed lomter-fog. 



From the above details it will appear to be the least valuable 

 of the bent-grasses that have been mentioned. The cultivation 

 of a grass of this value is out of the question ; the point of most 

 importance to be ascertained respecting it is, how to remove it 

 from the soil, and to substitute more valuable grasses in its place. 

 I have witnessed the beneficial effects of coal-ashes as a top- 

 dressing, when spread on the pasture in sufficient quantity ; they 

 appear to act in the manner of a surface-drain, by preventing 

 the water from stagnating or remaining too long on the surface 

 of the soil during wet weather in the end of autumn, during 

 winter, and in the early part of the spring, which the retentive 

 subsoil causes ; a circumstance most favourable to the growth of 

 this grass, but highly injurious to the superior grasses. The 

 ashes thus favouring the growth of the superior grasses, and the 

 pasture being in consequence closely cropped by the cattle, which 

 now find the pasture more palatable, the tufted bent disappears ; 

 it will, however, be found by no means destroyed, but only checked 

 in its growth. A few turfs being taken from a sward thus treated, 

 where the bent had disappeared in the manner now described, 

 were placed under circumstances similar to their former state, and 

 left uncropped till autumn, at which time the tufted bent re- 

 appeared in all its former vigour and abundance. 



Flowers in the first and second weeks of August, and ripens 

 the seed in the end of the same month. 



AIRA Jiexuosa. Zig-zag Hair-grass, Wavy Mountain Hair- 

 grass. 



Specific character : Panicle spreading, triple- forked, with wavy 

 branches ; florets about the length of the calyx, acute ; awn 

 from the middle of the outer valve, longer than the calyx, 

 twisted ; leaves bristle-shaped. Sm. Engl. Fl. i. p. 104. 



Refer. 1. Floret magnified. 2. Germen, Stigmas, and Nectary. 



Ohs. — The culms and leaves grow in dense tufts ; the panicle, 



