236 HORTUS GIJAMINEUS \VOT?UR N ENS IS. 



pressed, striated, smooth ; scales short, obtuse. Pani- 

 cle very large, upright ; branches pressed towards the 

 main stalk before and after flowerino-. 

 Native of Britain. Root perennial. 

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



a strong tenacious clay is 126,590 lbs. per acre. 

 This grass is common on the banks of rivers, and frequent 

 on the margin of standing pools. On the banks and little 

 islands of the Thames, where it is generally mown twice in 

 the year for hay, it affords abundant crops of valuable winter 

 fodder. Mr. Curtis informs us, that in flat countries, which 

 do not admit of being suflSciently drained, it is almost the 

 only grass for hay and pasturage. In the fens of Cambridge- 

 shire and Lincolnshire, 8cc. immense tracts, that used to be 

 overflowed and produce useless aquatic plants, and still retain 

 much moisture, though drained by mills, are covered with 

 this grass : which not only affords rich pasturage in summer, 

 but forms the chief part of their winter fodder. Its powerful 

 creeping roots make it a dangerous and troublesome plant in 

 ditches, where, with other aquatic plants, it soon chokcg 

 them up. In the Isle of Ely they cleanse the ditches of 

 these weeds by an instrument called a bear; which is anr ' 

 iron roller, with a number of pieces of iron, like small spades, 

 fixed in it. This is drawn up and down the river by horses 

 walking along the bank, and tears up the plants by the 

 roots, which float, and are carried down the stream. In tlie 

 Bath Agricultural Papers, the water meadow-grass, we are 

 informed, "in its native soil, the fens of the Isle of Ely, 

 grows to the height of six feet. It is usually cut when 

 about four feet high ,• when dry they bind it in sheaves ; it 

 generally undergoes a heat in the rick, which improves it. 

 It is excellent fodder for milch-cows ; horses are not fond of 

 it. The inhabitants there call it fodder, by way of eminence, 

 other kinds of coarse hay being called stover, ?'. e. coarse 

 stuff. It is also called white lead, drying of a white colour." 



The nutritive matter of this grass contains a greater pro- 

 ])ortion of sugar than exists in any of the superior pasture - 

 grasses. I ofiered a bundle of the grass to a horse that was 

 sirazinu' on a field of white clover ; the animal ate it with 



