HORTUS GRAMINEUS WOBURNENSIS. 



369 



pointed. Fig. 1. Spikelet. 2. Floret. 3. Germen. Sm. 

 Engl. Fl. i. p. 177. 



Obs. Root powerfully creeping. Leaves hard and rigid, very 

 glaucous, involute ; their upper surface marked with strong 

 rough furrows ; the under side quite smooth. Stipula very 

 short. Spike erect, close, glaucous. Husks finely downy. 

 See Sm. Engl. Fl. i. p. 177. Engl. Bot. 1672. Fl. Br. 152. 



Native of Britain. Root perennial. 



German, Sand-Haargras. 



Experiments. At the time the seed is ripe, the produce from a 



clayey loam is 



. 



dr. 



Grass, 64 oz. The produce per acre 

 80 dr. of grass weigh, when dry 45 



The produce of the space, ditto - 576 

 The weight lost by the produce of one acre in drying 19057 

 64 dr. of grass afford of nutritive matter 5 

 The produce of the space, ditto - 80 



The nutritive matter afforded by this lyme-grass is remarkable 

 for the large quantity of saccharine matter which it contains, 

 amounting to more than one-third of its weight ; this grass may 

 therefore be considered as the sugar-cane of Britain. The sac- 

 charine matter must render the hay made from this grass very 

 toiutritious, particularly when cut into chaff, and mixed with corn 

 or common hay. Its natural soil (if soil it can be called) are the 

 blowing sands on the sea-coast. The Arnndo arenaria, Poa mari- 

 tima, and Festuca rubra, I found in company with the Elymus 

 arenarius, on the sands near Skegness, Lincolnshire. The sand- 

 hills on the shore near that place were formed by the E. arenarius 

 and Arundo arenaria; the latter, with its tufty habit of growth, 

 formed the summit of the hill, while the broad spreading roots 

 and leaves of the Elymus arenarius secured the base and sides. 

 These two grasses, when combined, seem admirably adapted by 

 nature for the purpose of forming a barrier to the encroachment 

 of the sea. What sand the Arundo arenaria arrests and collects 

 about itself, the Elymus arenarius secures and keeps fast. The 

 culms are produced in small number when cultivated on a clayey 

 loam, or on a sandy soil. This deficiency of culms was even ap- 

 parent in the plants when growing in their natural soil. A greater 



B B 



