GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. 149 



Blue Grass, Or Wire Grass, (Poo, compressa.) Stems ascending, flattened, the 

 uppermost joint near the middle, leaves short, bluish green, panicle dense and contracted, 

 expanding more at flowering; short branches often in pairs, covered with four to nine 

 flowered, flat spikelets; flowers rather obtuse, linear, hairy below on the keel; ligule short 

 and blunt; height about a foot. It is very common on dry, sandy, thin soils and banks, so 

 hardy as to grow on the thin, hard soils covering the surface of rocks, along trodden walks, 

 or gravelly knolls. It shoots its leaves early, but the amount of its foliage is not large, 

 otherwise it would be one of our most valuable grasses, since it possesses a large per cent, of 

 nutritive matter. Flowers in July. Most grazing animals eat it greedily, and it is especially 

 relished by sheep. Its bluish green stems retain their color after the seed is ripe. It shrinks 

 less in drying than most other grasses, and consequently makes a hay very heavy in propor 

 tion to its bulk. It is an exceedingly valuable pasture grass on dry, rocky knolls and should 

 form a portion of a mixture for such soils. This should not be confounded with Kentucky 

 blue grass alluded to above. 



Annual Spear Grass, (Poa annua,) is, perhaps, the most common of all our grasses. 

 Its stems are spreading, flattened, panicle often one-sided, spikelets crowded, three to seven 

 flowered, lower palea more or less hairy on the nerves below ; leaves of a light green, sword- 

 shaped, flat, often crumpled at the margins, smooth on both surfaces, rough at the edges. 

 Florets not webbed, and this distinguishes it from the June grass, (Poa pratensis,) and its vari 

 eties. The outer or lower palea of this grass has no hairs on the lateral ribs as the Poa 

 pratensis has. This modest and beautiful grass flowers throughout the whole summer, and 

 forms a very large part of the sward of New England pastures, producing an early and sweet 

 feed, exceedingly relished by cattle. It does not resist the drought very well, but becomes 

 parched up in our pastures. 



The Rough Stalked Meadow Grass, (Poa trivialis,) though not so common as the 

 June grass, (Poa pratensis, } is still often met with, and is found to have webbed florets; outer 

 palea five-ribbed, marginal ribs not hairy, ligule long and pointed, stems two to three feet 

 high. Distinguished from June grass by having rough sheaths, while in the latter the sheaths 

 are smooth, the ligule obtuse, and the marginal ribs of outer palea furnished with hairs. The 

 rough-stalked meadow grass has a fibrous root, that of the June grass is creeping. It 

 flourishes in moist meadows, where it flowers in July. Introduced. 



This is a valuable grass to cultivate in moist, sheltered soils, possessing very considerable 

 nutritive qualities, coming to perfection at a desirable time, and being exceedingly relished 

 by cattle, horses, and sheep. For such soils it should form a portion of a mixture of seeds, 

 producing, in mixture with other grasses which serve to shelter it, a large yield of hay, far 

 above the average of grass usually grown on a similar soil. It should be cut when in. seed 

 and not in the flower. Seven pounds of seed to the acre will produce a good sward. The 

 grass loses about seventy per cent, of its weight in drying. Its hay contains about one and 

 sixty hundredths per cent, of azote, and the nutritive qualities of the aftermath exceed very 

 considerably those of the crop cut in the flower or in the seed. 



. Wood Meadow Grass, (Poa nemoralis.} This grows from eighteen inches to 

 two feet high, has a perennial, creeping root, an erect stem, slender, smooth, the upper sheath 

 no longer than its leaf, with a very short ligule, the base of the floret having a silky web 

 suspending the calyx, leaves light green. It is common in moist, shady places, and appears 

 as a tall, rank grass, with a long, finely arched panicle. It flowers in June and ripens its seed 

 in July. 



It is certainly to be classed among the best of shaded pasture grasses, furnishing a fine, 

 succulent, and very nutritive herbage, which stock of all kinds are very fond of. Hay con 

 tains one and sixty-four one-hundredths per cent, of azote. The grass loses about fifty-five 

 per cent, of its weight in drying. 



