HORTUS GRAMINEUS WOB U UN EN SIS. 251 



is killed by frost, but the roots suffer nothing from its 

 effects. It is propagated by parting and planting the roots 

 early in the spring, or late in the autumn. The above details 

 show that it is neither productive nor nutritive. 

 Flowers in the first or second week of October. 



TRIODIA decumbens. Decumbent Heath-grass. 



Generic character: Corolla orbicular, expanded, obscurely 

 ribbed, deeply cloven, with an intermediate point ; both 

 valves concave ; seed loose, depressed. 



Specific character : Panicle nearly simple, contracted, 

 erect ; spikelets oval oblong ; florets four, their middle 

 tooth shortest ; stipula hairy ; calyx smooth, root some- 

 what creeping. 



Native of Britain. Root perennial. 



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

 a clayey loam is 5,445 lbs. per acre. 



It is chiefly confined to high wet barren pastures, though 

 sometimes found in those that are dry. On some particular 

 spots among the trees in Woburn Park, it is found growing 

 in company with the carex axillaris. It appears to be but 

 little susceptible of improvement by being transplanted to a 

 richer soil ; as the produce from a rich black loam scarcely 

 exceeded the above-stated produce from a clayey loam with- 

 out any manure. It never appeared to be cropped by the 

 deer in the Park. It is late in the production of foliage in 

 the spring, and produces little after-grass : it is not, there- 

 fore, to be recommended for cultivation. 



It flowers about the third and fourth weeks of July, and 

 the seed is ripe in the middle and towards the latter end of 

 August, according as the soil and season are favourable to 

 its growth. 



From the above details it is evident, that if we except one, 

 or at most two species of grass, the whole natural produce 

 of bogs and low-lying stagnant meadows is of little or no 

 value to the possessors. Such lands, however, by the sim- 



