400 HORTUS GRAMINEUS WOBURNENSIS. 



Produce per Acre, 

 dr. qr. lbs. 



Grass, 80 oz. The produce per acre - - 54450 



80 dr. of grass weigh, when dry - 26 7 ivfjoR 4 n 



The produce of the space, ditto - 416 ) 



The weight lost by the produce of one acre in drying 36753 12 

 64 dr. of grass afford of nutritive matter 1 2 7 i«7r o n 

 The produce of the space, ditto - 30 3 



This grass has been cultivated in England for the sake of its 

 seeds only, which are esteemed the best for the smaller birds, 

 particularly canaries ; whence it takes its name. Its culture here 

 appears to be chiefly confined to the Isle of Thanet. From the 

 results of the above experiments, it proves a great impoverisher 

 of the soil. A given space of a rich clayey loam afforded in the 

 first season 80 oz. of grass, when cut at the time of flowering ; 

 the succeding year the same space was well worked and sown, 

 but no manure was applied ; the produce was only 9 oz. On the 

 third year the ground was manured with decayed stable-dung, at 

 the rate of 70 cart-loads per acre ; the given space then afforded 

 85 oz. of grass. The herbage is but little nutritive, and the plant 

 cannot be recommended for cultivation but for the seeds only, 

 which are principally in demand in the neighbourhood of large 

 towns. 



Flowers in the first week of July, and the seed is ripe about the 

 end of August. 



PDA annua. Annual Meadow-grass, Suffolk-grass. 



Specific character: Panicle divaricate; spikelets ovate, five- 

 flowered ; florets somewhat remote, five-ribbed, without a 

 web ; culms oblique, compressed. Sm. Engl. Fl. i. p. 127 ; 

 Flo. Rust. t. 8; Engl. Bot. t. 1141; Huds. Angl. 42; Curt. 

 Lond. 1, t. 6; Wither.; Hort. Gram. Fol. S05.— Fig, I. 

 Nectary and Germen. 2. Floret, magnified. 



OOs. — The Poa annua is distinguished from the Poa trivialis by 

 its general habit, its spreading panicle, and reclining culms ; 

 by its smoothness, greater softness, and delicacy ; from Poa 

 pratensis, by having the branches in pairs, its panicle more 

 thinly set, and its spikelets larger ; from both, by its inferior 

 size, compressed culms, and annual root. Martyn.— Stigmas 



