402 HORTUS GRAMINEUS WOBURNENSIS. 



allow of its application economically. The best manner of applying 

 it is, just after the pitchings or walks have been cleaned, to strew 

 the salt over the surface sufficiently thick to make each particle 

 of the salt touch another. This dressing will be found to prevent 

 the vegetation of the seeds or roots of the grass. It will also be 

 found to destroy worms and slugs. 



The Poa annua flowers and ripens its seed throughout the 

 summer. 



TRITICUM repens. Creeping Wheat-grass, Couch, Quitch, 

 Dog's-grass, Quicks. 



Specific character: Calyxes 5-flowered, awl-shaped, many- 

 nerved ; florets acuminate ; leaves flat ; root creeping. 



Obs. Root perennial, powerfully creeping-jointed, coated; 

 fibres downy; stems slender, upright, two feet high, but 

 acquire a much greater height when drawn up in hedges ; 

 round, smooth, striated, having five or six joints, which are 

 frequently tinged with red ; leaves spreading very much, 

 smooth on the under surface, on the upper and the margin 

 rugged ; they are often directed on one side ; spike nearly 

 upright, two or three inches long, flat, composed of numerous 

 spikelets, often more or less awned. Flo. Rust. t. 124; Engl. 

 Bot. 909 ; Huds. 57, Wither. Arr. ; Smith Brit. 158 ; Flo. 

 Dan. t. 784. 



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



clayey loam is 



Produce per Acre, 

 dr. qr. Ibs. 



Grass, 18 oz. The produce per acre 12251 4 



80 dr. of grass weigh, when dry 32 



The produce of the space, ditto - 115 



64 dr. of grass afford of nutritive matter 20^ OQQ 13 in 



The produce of the space, ditto 9 5 



64 dr. of the roots afford of nutritive matter 5 dr. 3 qr. ; the 

 proportional nutritive powers of the roots is therefore superior to 

 that of the herbage, as 8 to 23. 



This species constitutes the principal of what is termed couch- 

 grass, in gardens or rich cultivated grounds. The Holcus mollis, 

 and Poa pratensis, are the proper couch-grasses of light or sandy 

 soils. The Agrostis alba is chiefly troublesome as couch in 

 clayey lands. Forking out the roots after the plough, is doubt- 

 less the best mode of extirpating this noxious weed ; but the pro- 



