286 HORTUS GRAMINEUS WOBURNENSIS. 



Produce per Acre, 

 dr. qr. lbs. 



The weight lost by the produce of one acre in drying 5445 

 64 dr. of grass afford of nutritive matter 2 1 919 n 9 

 The produce of the space, ditto - 5 3 



The crop at the time of flowering is therefore superior 

 to that at the time the seed is ripe, in the proportion 

 nearly of 5 to 3. 



The produce of latter-math is — 

 Grass, 10 oz. The produce per acre - - 6806 4 



64 dr. of grass afford of nutritive matter 2 212 11 2 



The proportional value in which the grass of the latter-math is 

 inferior to that at the time of flowering, is as 4 to 3. The grass 

 of the latter-math, and that at the time the seed is ripe, are of 

 equal proportional value. 



The downy hairs which cover the surface of the leaves of this 

 grass when growing on poor, dry, or chalky soils, almost disappear 

 when cultivated on richer soils. It has properties which recom- 

 mend it to the notice of the Agriculturist, being hardy, and a 

 small impoverisher of the soil ; the reproductive power is also con- 

 siderable, though the foliage does not attain to a great length if 

 left growing. Like the Poa pratensis, it seldom or never sends 

 forth any flowering culms after the first are cropped, which is a 

 property of some value for the purpose of permanent pasture on 

 dry soils, which are sooner impoverished by the growth of plants 

 than those that are moist. Among the secondary grasses, there- 

 fore, I hardly know one whose habits promise better for the pur- 

 pose now spoken of. The nutritive matter it affords contains a 

 greater proportion of the bitter extractive principle than the nutri- 

 tive matter of those grasses that affect a similar soil, which lessens 

 its merits in those respects, and must prevent its being employed 

 in any considerable quantity as a constituent of a mixture of 

 grasses for laying down such soils to grass. In one part of 

 Woburn Park, where the soil is light and siliceous, the downy oat 

 grows in considerable abundance. 



It flowers in the second or third week of June, and the seed is 

 ripe about the beginning or in the middle of July. 



ME Lie J carulea. Purple Melic-grass. 



Specific character : Petals beardless, acute ; panicle close, erect. 



