HORTUS GRAMINEUS 



CHAPTER I. 



The enumeration, identification, description, and investi- 

 gation of the nutritive properties of the natural order of 

 grasses as the food of the more valuable domestic animals, 

 were the grand objects the author had in view in composing 

 this valuable volume. He commences the work by relating 

 the orders, the wishes, and suggestions of his noble Patron 

 relative to the undertaking ; his own motives and duty 

 inducing him to engage in the task ; together with an 

 account of the means he possessed for enabling him to 

 prosecute the laudable design. These particulars have 

 already been briefly detailed in our introduction. We now 

 enter upon the body of the work, in which full descriptions, 

 both botanical and popular, are given of the grasses, and 

 other forage plants which come within the scope of the 

 author's plan, and which he considered more particularly 

 interesting to agriculturists in general. And in order to 

 show what will be minutely described hereafter, we will 

 first give his general list of grasses, viz. 



Sect. I. — Grasses with three stamina, one style, calyx multi- 

 valve, or an involucre. 



LYGEUM. Hooded mat-weed. Generic character; powers 

 produced in pairs ; spathe convoluted, of one leaf; seed- 

 vessel a nut two-celled, two-seeded, villose. 

 spartum, perennial. Rush-leaved Spanish mat-weed. 



CORNUCOPIJ^. Horn of plenty grass. Hooded cornu- 

 copia. Generic character : involucre of one leaf, cup- 



