HORTUS GRAMINEUS WOBURNENSIS. 293 



contrary ; but the spike will always distinguish them. The 

 teeth of the bristles in the verticillatum are reversed. Culms 

 from four to sixteen inches in height, oblique, leafy, having 

 three joints, striated at top, rugged ; leaves rather broad, the 

 upper surface rugged. The sheath-scale consists of a row of 

 hairs pointing downwards : in the verticillatum this is wanting, 

 or very minute. Sheaths somewhat compressed, even. Spike 

 ovate, cylindrical, unequal in thickness, green before flower- 

 ing, afterwards reddish-brown and purple on one side. 

 Leers. Martyn ; E. Bot. 875; Flo. Dan. t. 852, Panicum 

 crus gain ; Host, t. 14; Curt. Lond. fasc. 44. 



German, Gruner-Feniikh. 



Native of Britain. Root annual. 



Experiments. — At the time the seed is ripe, the produce from a 



rich siliceous soil, incumbent on clay, is — 



Produce per Acre. 

 dr. qr. 

 Grass, 8 oz. The produce per acre 

 80 dr. of grass weigh, when dry 

 The produce of the space, ditto 

 The weight lost by the produce of one acre in drying 

 64 dr. of grass afford of nutritive matter 1 2 ^ . j^„ q 1 4 

 The produce of the space, ditto - 3 3 



This species of panic-grass is therefore of little value to the 

 Agriculturist, and as it is far from being a common grass, it is 

 not much to be feared as a weed. The seed seems to be a fa- 

 vourite food of birds, particularly of the smaller species ; unless 

 care is taken before the seed is perfected and collected, little will 

 be saved from these depredators. The seeds vegetate better 

 when sown in June, or as soon as they are ripe in the autumn, 

 than in any other season. It is natural to sandy soils, but main- 

 tains itself likewise on damp clayey soils without any culture, 

 except that of preventing it from being overpowered by other 

 plants. The annual grasses that afford but small quantities of 

 nutritive matter, and an inferior weight of herbage, impoverish 

 the soil very little, as the Panicum viride, Panicum sanguinale, 

 Festuca myurus, Bromus mollis, &c. ; for this reason they are 

 raised naturally on the same spot for a series of years, without 

 much diminution in the yearly produce. There are three spots of 

 ground in the Grass Garden at Woburn, of which the three first- 

 mentioned species have kept possession in this manner for five 



