HORTUS GRAMINEUS WOBURNENSIS. 243 



Flowers about the first and second weeks of July, and 

 ripens the seed in three weeks afterwards. 



ELYMirS PhiladelphicHS. Philadelphian Lyme-grass. 



Specific character : Spike pendulous, open; spikelets vil- 

 lose, six-flowered, the lower ones ternate. 



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

 a clayey loam and retentive subsoil is 30,628 lbs. per 

 acre. 



In the Hortus Kewensis we are informed, this grass was 

 first introduced into England by the Rt. Hon. Sir J. Banks, 

 Bart., K. B., in 1790, from North America. It is a very pro- 

 ductive grass, and with respect to foliage, is rather early in 

 the spring : it contains a considerable quantity of nutritive 

 matter. From the large size it attains, the produce is rank 

 and proportionally coarse, and is unfit for pasture. It ap- 

 pears that for soiling, or hay to be used in the form of chafl", 

 this, and some other of the gigantic grasses, would be profit- 

 able plants on soils unfit for the production of the superior 

 pasture grasses, or of corn. 



A comparison of the quantity of nutritive matter contained 

 in hay of the best quality, with that contained in an equal 

 weight of the hay made from this grass, will show, nearly, 

 their comparative value. 



One pound of hay composed of the best natural grasses 

 contains of nutritive matter 57 dr. One pound of hay com- 

 posed of the elymus Phi/adelphicus contains of nutritive mat- 

 ter 34 dr. With regard to nutritive powers, therefore, five 

 tons of the hay of this grass are scarcely equal to three tons 

 of that of the superior grasses. But the soil that will pro- 

 duce this grass, and others of the same class, at the rate of 

 six tons per acre, would not produce one-fifth the quantity 

 of the superior grasses ; consequently, the adoption of the 

 tall fescue and Philadelphian lyme-grasses, on soils of this 

 description, for the uses now described, might be found a 

 profitable measure. 



Flowers in the first and second weeks of July, and suc- 



R 2 



