THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



365 



each layer; in this way ihe fruit retains all its; I thouph the agreement is remarl<al)ie, the discre- 



virtues anci'hy most persons is hi<;hly relished. ' pnnciep leave room to hold on to the claim of P. 



3. Jiliubarb pie; cut the stalks to pieces of the \praUnsis. In some of the Fcicniific deecriptions 



size" of the <Tooseberry, put these pieces into a i of /*. pnv/fiisis, it is said to have creeping roots; 



dish with iis t)oitom covered with a crust or not, 

 at pleasure; squeeze over them a little lemon 

 juice, adding orange peel, sugar, rose-water, cin- 

 namon and other spices to your ta>te, covering 

 the whole wiih a good puff paste, and then 

 balce it. 



4. Rhuharb tarts resembling codling tarts ; cut 

 the leaf sialUs inio pieces ahoui lour inches long, 



skin and slowly simmer them in a saucepan with ! grass, in Virginia, goose grass, yard grass, green- 

 sugar and a trifle of water, lor one hour; when sward, in England, I believe, great or smooth 

 cold, make them taste like codlins by adding cin 

 namon, lemon peel. &ic. 



but such is not the fact wiih regard to Kentucky 

 blue grass. We leave it with botanists to settle 

 the scientific term ; and we shall (orward to a 

 number of them, in various quarters, specimens of 

 the genuine grass. 



Llangollan, 3Iay 26, 1841. 

 Dear sir — The grass called in Kentucky, blue 



stalked meadow grass, by all botanists arranged in 

 the poa genus, tuit by some called the species P. 

 5. Jihubarb sauce ; boil the stalks over a slow \ prat en sis, by others P. trivialis. is now in bloom, 

 fire, till tender, in a small quantity of water with j 1 have taken some pains to examine it with a 

 sugar and sucli spices as suit the taste, and strain j compound microscope of some power, and give 



off the liquor, squeezing the stalks dry, and, when 

 the liquid syrup or sauce is cold, bottle and cork 

 it tight ; this will keep for years. 



After giving the above recipes, we are sure that 

 our esteemed fair correspondent will excuse us 

 from publishing the recipes for making rhubarb 

 cream— jelly— jam— trifle— fool — marmalade, &c. 

 as they can easily be made from the cookery 

 books, by substituting "rhubarb" lor "goose- 

 berries," "strawberries," &c., used in the com- 

 nion way of making those sweetmeats. 



A MINUTE SCIEKTIFIC DESCRIPTION OF KEN- 

 TUCKY BLUE GRASS. 



From tlie Kenlucl<y Farmer. 



We have much satisfaction in laying the fol- 

 lowing description of our great grazing grass, be- 

 fore the readers of the Farmer. We hope it will 

 serve to settle the disputed question as to what 

 species of the poa genus the blue grass is ; lor 

 there appears to be great difference of opinion, 

 even among botanists, on the subject. Although 

 the more general opinion is, that it is the poa 

 pratensis, yet it has been, by various writers, sup- 

 posed to be P. viridis, P. trivialis, &c. &c. 



!n regard, however, to the accuracy of the fol- 

 lowing description of it, be it what species it may, 



you the results of my examination. But so simi- 

 lar are the characteristics of the species, in this 

 genus, that I am doubtful, after all, if this plant 

 can be distinguished by the characteristics here- 

 with sent you, from other species of the same 

 genus. Its general appearance is sufficient to en- 

 able larmers, familiar with it, to distinguish it at a 

 glance, li-om all other species, not only of the poa 

 genus, but from all of the gramince family. Its 

 root is fibroi^is, without knots or enlargements of 

 any kind, throwing off at their sides secondary 

 fibres, as fine as a single thread of a silk-worm, of 

 a pure white color. The roots in a favorable soil 

 are cespitose, throwing up many radical leaves 

 and forming a dense turf, so that the seeds of other 

 plants cannot reach the ground, and hence the 

 plant excludes most other kinds of vegetation. 

 The roots will grow as long as the stalk or culm is 

 high, and they are perennial. The stalk, although 

 it to the naked eye appears a smooth-surfaced 

 cylinder, from node to node, is striated, with raised, 

 longitudinal, parallel stripes of deep green, cover- 

 ed with lines of scabrous, whitish, protuberant 

 dots. Alternating with these stripes, square-edged 

 grooves of a paler green and smooth surface, run 

 parallel with them fi'pm node to node, giving to 

 each internode the appearance of a grooved fluted 

 column with raised plain surfaces between the 

 grooves of a deep green, dotted with white stucco,* 

 and the bottoms of the grooves of a pale green 

 and highly polished. The culm in this country is 



we are prepared to vouch ; having gone carefully , _ 



through the dissection and inspection of all the { 'rom one loot to four feet high, but where it has 



been grazed, from three to eighteen inches high 



parts or organs of the plant and flower, by means 

 of a good microscope. JVlr. Lewis spent ten days 

 of labor in dissecting many flowers, to be certain 

 of the correctness of his description ; and, after he 

 had become entirely satisfied, we then spent a day 

 with him, verifying the accuracy of his descrip- 

 tion. Although we have no experlness in such 

 dissections, we can yet venture to say that, with 

 the aid of a good microscope, we could see that 

 his description, as far as it goes, is correct. All 

 that he states may be relied on ; though our 

 readers will not require an endorser for Mr. Lewis' 

 scientific opinions. It will be observed that he 

 does not speak of a nectary j and this is because 

 he had not been able to discover it. Every other 

 important organ of the plant was discovered ; 

 and he only describes what he saw. 



It will be observed that the description by Mr. 

 Lewis comes near identifying our blue jrraes with 

 another poa as described in Nuttall ; but, al- 



The sheaths of the cauline leaves are much long- 

 er than the lamina. The stipule is a semi-circu- 

 lar extension of the sheath about one-twentieth of 

 an inch above the articulation, deprived of paren- 

 chyma and of silverj' white color and scariose jut- 

 ting above the blade and resting against the culm 

 it gives the appearance of a sheath cut off and 

 the blade or lamina of the leaf glued on to the 

 back of it just below where it was cut off. The 

 lamina or blade of the leaf is linear-lanceolate with 

 a coarclate pungent point. The blade carinate 



* May not the regular lines of which dots on the 

 stalks be a silicious deposite to strengthen it? Dr. 

 Brewster gives it as his opinion, that the Tabashcar in 

 the nodes of bamboo is an integral element of the 

 plant itself and 770^ an accidental deposite, and that it 

 performs some important function in the processes of 

 vegetable life. See the Edinburgh Journal of Sci- 

 ence (16th) page 285, 1828. 



