316 HORTUS GRAMINEUS WOBURNENSIS. 



in sheep pasture, which is not the case when it is made into hay ; 

 the long sharp awns with which the spikelets are armed rendering 

 it dangerous to the mouths of cattle, and forming a serious objec- 

 tion to its introduction (at least in large quantities) into irrigated 

 meadows, where the produce is, in part, every year converted into 

 hay. It is tolerably early in the spring produce of foliage, and its 

 nutritive powers are considerable. It is very hardy, and strictly 

 perennial. 



Flowers in July, and the seed is ripe in August. 



TRITICUM cmkilnm. Crested Wheat-grass. 



Bromits crutatus. Crested Brome-grass. 



Specific character : Calyx elliptical, awned, keeled, obscurely 

 ribbed ; florets awned ; spikelets closely imbricated, two- 

 ranked, depressed, straight ; stems simple. E. Bot. ; Sm. 

 Engl. Fl. i. p. 184. 



Ohs. — Roots furnished with very long, woolly fibres, adapted 

 to grow in sands ; culms ascending twelve or eighteen inches 

 high, simple, rigid, slender, leafy, hairy at the top ; leaves 

 linear, shortish, with long close sheaths, upper surface in 

 one specimen hairy : but Gmelin says the character is vari- 

 able. The Secale prostratum is akin to this, but has an annual 

 root and a branched stem. E. Bot. — The Triticum cristutum 

 of Host agrees with the above, and the upper surface of the 

 leaves are hairy. Host. ii. t. 24, Triticum cristatum — Secale 

 prostratum^ Jacquin. Hort. Gram. Fol. 207. 



Native of Scotland. Root perennial. 



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



clayey loam is — 



Produce per Acre, 

 dr. qr. lbs. 



Grass, 13 oz. The produce per acre - 8848 



80 dr. of grass weigh, when dry - 32 ^ ^rQQ 4 n 

 The produce of the space, ditto - 83 I 3 

 The weight lost by the produce of one acre in drying 5308 14 

 64 dr. of grass afford of nutritive matter 2 2^ o^r irj i 

 The produce of the space, ditto - 8 Ofg 3 



At the time the seed is ripe, the produce is — 

 Grass, 12 oz. The produce per acre - 8167 8 



80 dr. of grass weigh, when dry - 34 ^ "MfiS 11 

 The produce of the space, ditto - 81 2f j 



