250 HOKTUS GRAMINKUS WOli U RNENSIS. 



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

 a rich sihceous sandy soil is 27,225 lbs. per acre. 



This species is confined to woods in its natural stale ; but 

 it continues in the soil, and appears to thrive equally well 

 when cultivated in open situations. It is a coarse grass, and 

 but little nutritive, though greatly superior to the spiked 

 and wood fescue grasses. The seeds are eaten by birds ; 

 and this appears to be the chief use of the plant, its large 

 structure being, apparently, intended to enable it to per- 

 fect its seed among bushes, where it would be otherwise 

 choked up. 



It flowers in the third week of June, and ripens the seed 

 about the middle and latter end of July. 



AGROSTIS ramosissima. Lateral-branching Bent-grass. 



Specific character: Panicle spike-like, heaped ; calyx 

 shorter than the corolla ; culms branching at each 

 joint. 



Obs. —This is nearly allied to the agrostis Mexicana ; the 

 culms are taller and more woody, lateral branches more 

 numerous, shorter, and pointing one way ; leaves 

 smoother than those of the a. Mexicana ; panicle more 

 compact, or heaped together, which gives it more the 

 appearance of a spike ; calyx shorter than the corolla, 

 with very few hairs at the base, which are long and 

 numerous in the Mexicana. Flowers a month later 

 than that species. 



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

 a strong clayey loam is 28,586 lbs. per acre. 



This is one of the latest flowering grasses. It is remark- 

 able for the number of branches that issue from the joints 

 of the stem ; and the woody substance of the culms makes 

 it approach to the nature of a shrub. It affords little herb- 

 age till the beginning of summer, and flowers at so late a 

 period of the season, that, excepting once, I have never been 

 able to procure any perfect seed, the frost generally destroy- 

 ing the panicles before the seed is perfected. The herbage 



