HORTUS GRAMINEUS WOBURNENSIS. 343 



rooting stoloniferous shoots of the Agrostis stolonifera, and its 

 varieties, palustris, aristata, latifolia, angustifolia, and nemoralis, 

 are characters which have remained permanent after the test of 

 reproduction from seed, on different soils, has been repeated on 

 these grasses for many years, with every possible care. 



The creeping root and meagre produce of the Agrostis alba, and 

 the fibrous root and comparatively great produce of the A. stolo- 

 nifera, are agricultural characters of distinction of the highest im- 

 portance ; and although the writer of this perfectly agrees in the 

 opinion that the essential botanical characters of distinction 

 afforded by these grasses are insufficient to constitute them dis- 

 tinct species, yet the very opposite external habits and agricul- 

 tural merits of these grasses, and which have been fully proved to 

 be permanent, induce me, but with the greatest deference, to 

 retain those names of these grasses nearly the same as they are 

 given in the original of these pages. That our Agrostis stolonifera 

 is the A. alba of Linnaeus, is clearly proved by Sir James Edward 

 Smith in his English Flora. The error seems to have originated 

 in Withering, and from that authority propagated with ready 

 facility among practical men; for the term stolonifera being so 

 appropriate a name to that grass, while the term alba, on the other 

 hand, seemed equally unappropriate, as conveying the idea of a 

 property existing in the plant no-where apparent, but when applied 

 to the creeping-rooted agrostis, as described by Withering and 

 others, under the name of alba, might very properly allude to the 

 white creeping roots of that species. 



Native of Britain. Root perennial. 



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



clayey soil is 



Produce per Acre, 



dr. qr. Ibs. 



Grass, 12 oz. The produce per acre 8167 8 



80 dr. of grass weigh, when dry 34 7 2471 3 

 The produce of the space, ditto 81 Of 3 



The weight lost by the produce of one acre in drying 4696 5 



64 dr. of grass afford of nutritive matter 207 005^ ^19 

 The produce of the space, ditto - 603 



This grass is late, unproductive, and contains but little nutritive 

 matter. Its creeping roots greatly exhaust the soil ; in this variety 

 they are smaller than in the other varieties, but equally difficult 

 to extirpate when once in possession of tenacious clays. The next 



