NATURAL HISTORY. 71 



Grows in wet meadows. Flowers in May. Common and gen- 

 erally diffused, but of no value for cultivation, on account of 

 its powerful, creeping roots and very slight spring foliage. It 

 derived its generic name, hierochloa, holy grass, from two 

 Greek words, signifying sacred grass, — from the fact that it was 

 customary to strew it before the doors of the churches on festi- 

 val and saint's days, in the north of Europe. In Sweden it is 

 sold to be hung up over beds, where it is supposed to induce 

 sleep. 



Sweet Scented Vernal Grass, (^anthoxanthum odoratumS) 

 Specific characteristics : Spikelets spreading, three flowered, 

 lateral flowers neutral, with one palea, hairy on the outside and 

 awned on the back ; glumes thin, acute, keeled, the upper 

 twice as long as the lower ; seed ovate, adhering to the palea 

 which incloses it ; root perennial. Flowers in May and June. 

 Stems from one and a half to two feet high. Introduced from 

 Europe. This grass is seen in Fig. 79. 



This is one of the earliest spring grasses, as well as one of 

 the latest in the autumn. It is almost the only grass that is 

 fragrant. It possesses a property peculiar to this species, or 

 possessed by only a few others, known as coumarin. It is 

 said to be this which not only gives it its own aromatic odor, 

 but imparts it to other grasses with which it is cured. The 

 green leaves when bruised give out this perfume to the fingers, 

 and the plant may thus be known. The grass has but little value 

 of itself, its nutritive properties being slight ; nor is it much 

 relished by stock of any kind, but as a pasture grass on almost 

 all soils, and with a large mixture of other grasses, it is very 

 valuable for its early growth, and this gives it the character of 

 a permanent pasture grass. 



It is not uncommon in our pastures and road sides, growing 

 as if it were indigenous. I have found fine specimens of it on 

 dry soils at Nantucket and elsewhere. 



The aftermath or fall growth of this beautiful grass is said 

 to be richer in nutritive qualities than the growth of the spring. 

 Though it is pretty generally diffused over the country, it is 

 only on certain soils that it takes complete possession of the 

 surface and forms the predominant grass in a permanent turf, 

 as it is said to do in some sections around Philadelphia. The 

 flavor of the spring butter sold in that city is ascribed by some 



