270 nouTus gUzXmineus avobut. nensis. 



its seeds only, which are esteemed the best for the smaller 

 birds, particularly the canary finch ; whence it takes its name- 

 Its culture here appears to be chiefly confined to the Isle of 

 Thanet. From the results of the above experiments, it 

 proves a great impoverisher of the soil. The herbage is but 

 little nutritive, and the plant cannot be recommended for 

 cultivation but for the seeds only, which are principally in 

 demand in the neighbourhood of large towns. 



Flowers in the first week of July, and the seed is ripe 

 about the end of August. 



POA atniua. Annual Meadow-grass, Suffolk-grass. 



Specific character : Panicle divaricate; spikelets ovate, 

 five-flowered ; florets somewhat remote, five-ribbed, 

 without a web ; culms oblique, compressed. Fig. 1. 

 Nectary and germen. 2. Floret, magnified. 



Obs. — The j)oa aimita is distinguished from the poa 

 trivia/is by its general habit, its spreading panicle, and 

 reclining culms ; by its smoothness, greater softness, 

 and delicacy ; from poa prateiisis, by having the 

 branches in pairs, its panicle more thinly set, and its 

 spikelets larger; from both, by its inferior size, com- 

 pressed culms, and annual root. 



ILxperirneitts. — About the middle of June, the produce 

 from a rich black loam is 5,445 lbs. per acre. 



This, though a diminutive annual plant, is the most 

 troublesome weed that infests gravel walks, stone pitchings, 

 and the like. It continues to flower and produce seed all 

 the spring, summer, autumn, and even sometimes in the 

 winter months. The seed is perfected in a shorter space of 

 time than that of any other species of grass, or of any plant 

 with which I am acquainted. It will produce flowers and 

 seeds, when it cannot attain to more than an inch in height, 

 from the soil being in the next degree to absolute 

 sterility. 



Mr. Stillingfleet informs us, that in some parts it is called 

 Suffolk-grass, there being whole fields of it in High Suifolk, 

 without any mixture of other grasses j and he expresses an 



