302 HORTUS GRAMINEUS WOBURNENSJS. 



florets acute, free ; sheath-scale oblong, acute ; leaves short, 

 obtuse, pointed ; root fibrous. 

 Obs. — Root-leaves numerous, flat, widish, nerved, smooth, 

 especially underneath, bluntish at the end, with a little dag- 

 ger-point; rugged at the edges, with short erect compressed 

 sheaths, and a short blunt stipula. Culms from three to 

 twelve inches high, ascending, a little compressed. Panicle 

 short, roundish. Spikelets ovate compressed, shining with 

 purple. Florets silky at the edges, but not, as in the Poa 

 pratensis, connected by complicated hairs, or by a web. 

 E. Bot. t. 1003; Host. ii. p. 49, t. 67, left hand figure; 

 Curtis; Flo. Dan. t. 807; Sm. Engl. Fl. i. p. 121; Hort. 

 Gram. Fol. 187. 

 German, Alpen-Khpengras. 

 Native of Britain. Root perennial. 



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

 light sandy loam is — 



Produce per Acre, 

 dr. qr. lbs. 



Grass, 8 oz. The produce per acre - 5445 



80 dr. of grass weigh, when dry - 25 ^ ,„^, q 

 The produce of the space, ditto - 40 i 



The weight lost by the produce of one acre in drying 3743 7 

 64 dr. of grass afibrd of nutritive matter 1 2 ^ ,^7 0-14 

 The produce of the space, ditto - 3 5 



The produce of this grass appears, from these experiments, to 

 be equal to that of the Alopecurus alpinus, and its nutritive powers 

 greater; but not sufficiently great to render it an object for the 

 Farmer's particular consideration. It is chiefly confined to alpine 

 regions. It grows wild in Scotland and Wales, also in Lapland, 

 Switzerland, and Silesia. 



Botanists inform us that mountainous countries are furnished 

 with a much greater variety of plants than flat countries ; and that 

 in primitive mountains the number of diflferent species of plants 

 exceeds that of the floetz mountains. If we compare the alpine 

 grasses with those that inhabit the valleys, the shades of dissimi- 

 larity will be found very slight in every point, except what arises 

 from size ; and the discriminating characters are therefore, in 

 such instances, often minute. 



Let the Poa alpina be compared with the Poa aquatica and Poa 

 pratensis, and it will afford an example of this. The Alopecurus 



