HORTUS GRAMINEUS WOBU R N E NSIS. Ill 



sowing the land. It may therefore be worthy the notice of 

 the agriculturist to examine such seeds before they are com- 

 mitted to the soil. 



It flowers about the middle of M ay, and ripens the seed 

 about the first or second week of June. 



Geese are remarkably fond of the seeds of this grass, and, 

 if they have access to an orchard or meadow where it grows, 

 will touch nothing else. 



FESTUCA loliacea. Darnel-like Fescue. 



Specific character: Spike two ranked, drooping; spikelets 

 nearly sessile, linear-oblong ; florets cylindrical, awnless, 

 pointed, with five slight ribs at the top. 



Obs. — This grass at first sight greatly resembles the /o- 

 linmperenue (ray-grass) ; but, on a closer inspection, 

 the calyx or outer husk, so conspicuous in the spikelets 

 of the ray-grass, is in the spikelets of this grass almost 

 wanting. The spikelets are also arranged in a difFei'ent 

 manner: in the ray-grass they stand facing the spike- 

 stalk ; but in the darnel-like fescue, they stand with 

 their back towards it. Native of Britain. Root fibrous. 

 Perennial. 



Experiments. — A.i the time of flowering, the produce from 

 a rich brown loam is 16,335 lbs. per acre. 



The latter-math produce is 3,403 lbs. per acre. 



The proportional value which the grass, at the time the 

 seed is ripe, bears to that at the time of flowering, is as 13 to 

 12 ; and the grass of the latter-math stands in proportion to 

 that at the time of flowering, as 12 to 5, and to that at the 

 time the seed is ripe, as 13 to 5. 



This species of fescue is very much like the ray-grass in 

 appearance ; it likewise affects the same kind of soil. Some 

 botanists have supposed it to be a hybrid, the joint produce 

 of the lolium pereime and festucajluitans ; but the time when 

 the lolium peremie comes into flower, is nearer to that in 

 which the meadow fescue is in flower, than the flote fescue ; 

 the soil and habits of the two former grasses are likewise 

 more similar. 



