226 HOUTUS GRAMINEUS WOliU R N EN SfS. 



produced on these stagnant lands, are of a very inferioy 

 value. The vi^ater meadow-grass seems the most valuable, 

 as will appear by the following details of experiments made 

 upon them. 



To the indigenous grasses natural to marshy and sour 

 clayey lands, inentioned in the following series of speci- 

 mens, I have added such foreign grasses as may be classed 

 with them. 



AGROSTIS eanina, var. mutica. Awnless variety of Brown- 

 bent. 



Specific character : Panicle branches subdivided, roughish; 



corolla of one husk awnless. 

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



a bog soil is 5,446 lbs. per acre. 



It will have been remarked, from the perusal of the fore- 

 going statements, that the stoloniferous grasses afford more 

 nutritive matter at the time, and after the seed is ripe, than 

 at the time of flowering. The decumbent stems, or runners, 

 of this grass, furnished with tufts of leaves at the joints, 

 illustrate, in some measure, the meaning of the term stoloni- 

 ferous. Sir Humphry Davy says, that the concrete sap 

 stored up in the joints of these grasses renders them a good 

 food, even in winter. The weight of nutritive matter con- 

 tained in this grass, at the time the seed is ripe, is superior 

 to that afforded at the time it is in flower, in the proportion 

 of 7 to 10. 



It is the most common grass on deep bogs, even where 

 they are subject to be under water for six months in the 

 year. It is a diminutive plant, very unlike the produce of 

 such soils ; the leaves seldom attain to more than two or 

 three inches in length. Hares crop the foliage in the spring. 

 The smallness of the produce, even when cultivated under 

 the most favourable circumstances, affords a sufficient proof 

 of its unworthiness to be regarded by the farmer in any other 

 light than that of a weed which indicates a soil capable of 

 being improved, so as to produce the most valuable grasses 

 by artificial irrigation. It may be propagated to any extent 



