296 HORTUS GRAMINEUS M^OBURNENSIS. 



culture it will flower and ripen the seed much earlier than the 

 time specified below ; in that instance the seeds were sown 

 in May. 



It delights most in a rich, light, sihceous soil. It is said to 

 have received the name sariguiiiale, not from its colour, but from 

 a mischievous trick of boys in Germany, thrusting the spikelets 

 up the noses of their companions, thereby making them bleed. 



It flowers about the first week of August, and the seed is ripe 

 in the middle of September. 



BROMUS sterilis. Barren Brome-grass. 



Specific character : Panicle drooping, mostly simple ; spikelets 

 linear-lanceolate ; florets about seven, lanceolate, compressed, 

 seven-ribbed, furrowed ; awns longer than the glumes ; leaves 

 downy. Sm. Engl. Fl. i. p. 159. 



Obs. — Culms from one to two feet high, according to the 

 nature of the soil ; upright, roundish, and smooth, at the 

 bottom crooked, the joints swelled ; leaves flat, both they and 

 the culms covered with short soft hairs ; sheath-scale short, 

 obtuse ; panicle large, nodding, half a foot long ; spikelets 

 naked, rough, varying from a green to a purple colour ; larger 

 valve with an awn twice its length, straight, of a purple 

 colour towards the top. E. Bot. 1030; Host. t. 16; Curt. 

 Lond. fasc. 4 ; Mart. F. Rust. 125 ; Flo. Ger. 364 ; Wither. 

 Arr. 



German, Unfruchtbare-Trespe. 



Native of Britain. Root annual. 



Experiments. — At the time of flowering, the produce from a 

 sandy soil is — 



Produce per Acre, 

 dr. qr. lbs. 



Grass, 44 oz. The produce per acre - - 29947 8 



80 dr. of grass weigh, when dry - 45 7 -icqa^ n o 

 The produce of the space, ditto - 396 3 



The weight lost by the produce of one acre in drying 13102 8 



64 dr. of grass afford of nutritive matter 5 7 r.nor. i rx ^ 



mi ^ o y i- . r- r. C 2339 10 6 



1 he produce oi the space, ditto - 55 j 



It has been asserted that the seeds of this grass seldom arrive 

 at maturity ; but there is hardly a grass, either in a natural or 



