HORTUS GRAMINEUS WOBURNENSIS. 373 



dered penal, not only for any individual (without even excepting 

 the lord of the manor) to cut the bent, but for any one to be in 

 possession of any within eight miles of the coast. 



SPARTINA juncea. Rush-leaved Cord-grass. 



Dactijlis patens. Spreading Cock's-foot Grass. Hort. Gram. 

 Fol. 271. 



Specific charuclei' : Spike spreading, flowering a little on one 

 side ; florets bent like an arch ; culm decumbent ; leaves two- 

 rowed, spreading very much ; keel of the calyx rough. 



Obs. — Introduced into England in 1781 by Mr. William Curtis. 

 Hort. Kew. i. p. 160. 



Native of North America. Root perennial. 



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



rich siliceous sandy soil is — 



Produce per Acre, 

 dr. qr. lbs. 



Grass, 49 oz. The produce per acre - 33350 



80 dr. of grass weigh, when dry - 36 ^ 1 f^007 12 

 The produce of the space, ditto - 313 0^5 



The weight lost by the produce of one acre in drying 18342 4 



64 dr. of grass aftbrd of nutritive matter 2 3 7 14qq f\ n 

 The produce of the space, ditto - 33 21 3 



This grass is very late in the production of foliage in the spring, 

 and it does not come into flower till the month of August. The 

 produce, considered as a single crop, is then great, but it is the 

 only one it produces in the season. The nutritive qualities of the 

 herbage are likewise inferior to those of most other kinds of grass. 

 The leaves are remarkable for their length, smoothness of surface, 

 and toughness of fibre. 



I submitted a quantity of the leaves to the process used for 

 forming flax by steeping, drying, breaking, &c. The results were 

 favourable, inasmuch as the clean fibre was equal in strength and 

 softness to that of flax, but it was deficient in length ; for though 

 the leaves of the grass were as long as the plants of flax in general, 

 yet a considerable portion of the top, or from the point of the leaf, 

 did not stand the effects of the process. The only advantage that 

 appears would result from this plant affording flax is, that it could 

 be produced on a soil unfit for the growth of flax or the produc- 

 tion of corn. 



