HORTUS GEAMINEUS WOBURNENSIS. 283 



Produce per Acre, 

 dr. qr. Ibs. 



80 dr. of grass weigh, when dry 29 7 34^ ^ 12 



The produce of the space, ditto 81 OJ- > 



The weight lost by the produce of one acre in drying 6074 9 4 



64 dr. of grass afford of nutritive matter 237 



The produce of the space, ditto 9 2 \ $ 



This produce was taken from a heath soil that had been planted 

 with the grass ; for I never could obtain plants from the seed of 

 this grass when sown in the ordinary way on soils in open situa- 

 tions. In pots and favourable situations the seeds vegetated very 

 well ; it may probably be owing to some peculiarity of this kind in 

 the seed that it is now to be found in a wild state in this country. 

 Schrader, in his Flora Germanica, and Host, in his Gramina 

 Austriacorum, inform us, that the Stipa pennata grows wild in 

 many parts of Germany, on alpine or dry sandy places that are 

 much exposed to the warmth of the sun. 



Though, so far as the above experiments prove, it cannot be 

 propagated by the seed on a large scale, yet by parting the roots 

 it may soon be propagated to any extent; but its agricultural 

 merits appear to be so inconsiderable as to rank it with the inferior 

 grasses. The beautiful feather-like awns which terminate the 

 larger valves of the blossom, and which adhere to the seed, serving 

 as a sail to waft it from rock to rock, have procured it a place in 

 the flower-gardens of the curious, and serve to distinguish it at 

 once from all other grasses. Johnson, the editor of Gerarde's 

 Herbal, says it was nourished for its beauty in sundry of our 

 English gardens; and that it was worn by sundry ladies and gentle- 

 women instead of a feather, which it admirably resembles, 8cc. 



It flowers about the beginning of August, and the seed is ripe 

 about the middle of September. 



ALOPECURUS agrestis. Slender Fox-tail-grass. 



Alopecurus myosuroides. Curt. Lond. 



Specific character : Culm erect, roughish ; spike racemose, nearly 

 simple, tapering ; calyx glumes almost naked, combined at 

 the base, dilated at the keel. Sm. Engl. Fl. i. p. 180. 

 Refer I. Calyx glumes magnified. 2. Corolla. 3. The same 

 magnified, shewing the awn. 4. Germen and Styles. 



Obs. This annual species of fox-tail-grass is distinguished 



