HORTUS GRAMINEUS WOBURNENSIS. 175 



its merits are reduced to this one, the produce of early herbage in 

 the spring, which will appear insufficient to recommend it for the 

 purposes of cultivation. 



It flowers in the second week of June, and till August it sends 

 up flowering culms. The seed is ripe in the first week of July, 

 and successively till the middle of September. 



BROMUS multiflorus. Many-flowered Brome-grass. 



Specific character : Panicle nodding at the top ; spikelets spear- 

 shaped, compressed, naked; flowers imbricated ; awn straight; 

 leaves woolly. Host. 1. 11. Hort. Gram. Fo. 57. 



Obs. By attending to the form of the spikelets, this species 

 may readily be distinguished from the Bromus arvensis, whose 

 spikelets are linear spear-shaped. The B. mollis may likewise 

 be distinguished from the Bromus arvensis by the same 

 character ; and from the Bromus multiflorus by its downy hairs, 

 which cover the spikelets ; the spikelets of the B. arvensis 

 and B. multiflorus being naked. This is nearer to the Bromus 

 multiflorus of the E. Bot. than to the Bromus secalinus ; 

 indeed, its alliance to Bromus mollis is so great, that it may 

 with propriety be considered a variety, permanently larger, of 

 that well-known species. 



Native of Britain. Root annual. 



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

 sandy loam is 



Produce per Acre, 

 dr. qr. Ibs. 



Grass, 33 oz. The produce per acre 22460 10 



80 dr. of grass weigh, when dry - 44 ^ 



The produce of the space, ditto - 290 Of 5 



The weight lost by the produce of one acre in drying 10107 4 8 



64 dr. of grass afford of nutritive matter 5 i 



The produce of the space, ditto 41 1 j 



On comparing the quantity of nutritive matter afforded by the 

 produce of one acre of this grass at the time of flowering, with 

 that afforded under the like circumstances by the Bromus arvensis, 

 it manifests a superiority of 266 Ibs. per acre. This, and also the 

 superior nutritive qualities of the grass, appear to arise from the 

 greater proportion of culms in the produce of the many-flowered 

 brome-grass ; for though the culms of the Bromus arvensis grow 

 to a much larger size, they are much less numerous than in the 



