HQRTUS GRAMINEUS WOBURNENSIS. 197 



be suffered to stand at least eight days after the period of flowering ; 

 in two days after this period it will accumulate more nutritive mat- 

 ter than it did in ten days previous to that stage of growth, pro- 

 vided circumstances do not interrupt the progress of vegetation, 

 which the results of numerous experiments have proved. 



This grass is very deficient in the produce of after-math, and is 

 slow in growth after being cropped : these defects take much 

 from the merits above mentioned. It appears, therefore, to be 

 unfit for cultivation by itself as an alternate husbandry grass ; but 

 of great value, as a constituent of any mixture of grasses for per- 

 manent pasture, or the alternate husbandry, where it should always 

 form a part. 



In the Annual Register for 1765, we find that it was much 

 recommended about fifty years ago, under the name of Timothy- 

 grass ; and Mr. Wynch is said to have brought it from Virginia in 

 1763. It received this quaint appellation from Mr. Timothy 

 Hanson, who first brought its seeds from New York to Carolina. 

 It had then a great character in America, where it is called Herd- 

 grass. I was, in 1815, informed by a proprietor of land in Canada, 

 that it is still considered the best grass in that province. 



It flowers in the third week of June, and ripens the seed in the 

 end of July. 



PHLEtlM pratense, var. minus. Smaller variety of Meadow 

 Cat's-tail Grass. 



Obs. This differs from the preceding variety in the dagger- 

 like points which terminate the husks, these being longer in 

 this variety, and more recurved or bent outwards; the husks 

 are larger in every respect, and less ciliated. Culms almost 

 covered with the sheaths of the leaves ; joints of the culm 

 less swoln, not upright, but ascending ; and the root is more 

 like a bulb. These distinctions have continued steadfast after 

 the plant has been twice raised from seed. The annexed spe- 

 cimen was produced from the second sowing. The foregoing 

 specimen of the first variety is also of the second sowing ; 

 both varieties were raised on the same soil, and, indeed, on 

 the same bed of earth. Sm. Engl. Fl. i. p. 75, Phleum pra- 

 tense. Fig. 1 . Calyx magnified, shewing the fringes to ter- 

 minate abruptly before they reach the bottom of the awns ; 

 awns pointing outwards ; in the Phleum pratense they point 

 inwards. Hort. Gram. Wob. Fol. 85. 



