HOLCUS. 



HOLCUS. 



Sinclair, in his Hortus Gramineus, has extend- 

 ed to 5 species and varieties, including the 

 northern holy-grass (Hierochloe borealis}, which 

 Smith very properly refers to another class. 



Holcus avenaceus (PI. 5, cc). Tall oat-like 

 soft-grass. In this species the calyx is smooth, 

 the barren floret lowest, with a sharply bent 

 prominent awn ; fertile one bent, slightly ele- 

 vated, scarcely awned ; leaves rather harsh ; 

 roots knobbed, or with tuberous joints and 

 downy fibres. In dry or fluctuating soils the 

 roots become largely bulbous, and then consti- 

 tute a troublesome weed. In the works of 

 Linnaeus, Curtis, and Host, this grass is found 

 under the name of jlvena elatior it has since 

 been thought to agree better with holcus in 

 structure ; but it appears to belong to neither 

 of these justly, serving rather to form the con- 

 necting link between the avenee, hold, and airee. 

 This grass grows common in pastures, hedges, 

 thickets, and by road sides. The stem rises to 

 3 feet high, is smooth, simple, and jointed; the 

 joints sometimes downy ; the leaves are deep- 

 preen, rough-edged, and rather harsh to the 

 touch, with long striated sheaths, and abrupt 

 stipules. The flowering panicle is erect, late- 

 ral. The seeds are nearly cylindrical, and 

 coated with the hardened corolla. This grass 

 sends forth flowering culms during the whole 

 of the season. The entire plant is subject to 

 rust after the period of flowering; hence the 

 crop should be cut as soon as the grass is in 

 flower. This grass is eaten by all sorts of cat- 

 tle, and is always present in the composition 

 of the best natural pastures; but it does not 

 constitute a large proportion of the herbage. 

 It perishes rapidly after being cropped; and 

 though later in flowering (end of June) than 

 many other species, produces an early and 

 plentiful supply of herbage in the spring. 

 These properties would entitle it to rank high 

 as a ?rass adapted for the alternate husbandry, 

 but with respect to its nutritive properties, it 

 contains too large a proportion of bitter extrac- 

 tive and saline matters to warrant its cultiva- 

 tion without a considerable admixture of dif- 

 ferent grasses ; and the same objection extends 

 to its culture for permanent pasture. 



Hnlnts avenaceus, var. muticus. Awnless, tall, 

 oat-like soft-grass. In this variety, which is 

 smaller in every respect than the preceding, 

 the leaves are very short, the roots slightly 

 t> ^rous, the panicle much contracted, the 

 flowers without awns ; glumes pencilled at the 

 apex with purple. It flowers a week later than 

 the awned variety ; in all other respects it is 

 the same. It seldom perfects any good seed, 

 and appears to be much inferior in point of 

 produce. Hares give a decided preference to 

 the awnless variety. 



Holcus lanatus. Woolly or meadow soft- 

 grass. The root in this species is fibrous ; the 

 stem simple, 1 to 2 feet high, smooth above, 

 hairy below, with hairy sheaths, and short 

 blunt stipules. The panicle is thrice com- 

 pound, erect, and spreading. The calyx of the 

 flower is woolly, lower floret perfect, awnless; 

 upper with an arched awn ; leaves downy on 

 bcth sides. This is a very troublesome grass, 

 which is difficult to get rid of; it grows abun- 



dant in meadows and pastures on all soils, from 

 the richest to the poorest. Cattle prefer almost 

 any other grass to this; hence it is seen in 

 pastures, with full-grown perfect leaves, while 

 the grasses that surround it are cropped to the 

 roots. Sir Humphry Davy has shown that 

 its nutritive matter consists entirely of muci- 

 lage and sugar; while the same property in 

 the grasses most relished by cattle has either 

 a sub-acid or saline taste. This grass might 

 probably be rendered more palatable to cattle 

 by being sprinkled over with salt. 



Hard stocking, and never suffering it to run 

 to seed, will at least prevent this grass from 

 spreading; but ploughing up the pasture, and 

 taking not less than a five years' course of 

 crops and then returning the land to other 

 grasses, will be found the best means of getting 

 rid of it. It flowers and ripens the seed in July. 



Holcus niollis. Creeping soft-grass. PI. 5, c. 

 Couch-grass. The specific character of this 

 species is, root creeping, calyx partly naked, 

 lower floret perfect, awnless, upper with a 

 sharply bent prominent awn ; leaves slightly 

 downy. The distinctions between this grass 

 and the woolly or rocadcv soft-grass H lana- 

 tus, are the creeping root, and the whole plant 

 being more slender and less downy. The 

 leaves are also narrower and more soft than 

 those of the H. lanatus, and grow more distinct 

 from each other: on the contrary, those of the 

 H. lanatus are in dense tufts. The panicle is 

 more loose and smoother, with conspicuous 

 awns, which, in drying, bend at a right angle, 

 and extend beyond the calyx. The panicle of 

 the H. lanatus is generally of a reddish purple 

 colour tinged with green, or, when growing 

 under the shade of trees, of a whitish-green 

 colour. The panicle of the H. mollis is always 

 of the latter colour. This grass would rank as 

 one of the superior grasses if it did not usually 

 tenant a light barren sandy soil ; but it produces 

 little herbage in the spring, and the aftermath is 

 next to nothing. Pigs are very fond of the roots, 

 which contain a very considerable quantity of 

 nutritive matter, having the flavour of new- 

 made meal. The herbage is apparently more 

 disliked by cattle than that of the H. lanalus: it 

 is extremely soft, dry, and tasteless. The roots, 

 when once in possession of the soil, can hard- 

 ly again be expelled without great labour and 

 expense. It is the true couch grass of light 

 sandy soils, for its roots frequently attain in a 

 few months to 4 or 5 feet in length. The best 

 mode of banishing this impoverishing and 

 troublesome weed from light arable lands that 

 are infested with it, is to collect the roots with 

 the fork after the plough; and when thus in 

 some measure lessened to apply yearly dress- 

 ings of clay, perhaps 50 loads per acre, till the 

 texture of the soil is changed to a sandy loam; 

 this grass will then be easily overcome, and 

 the fertility of the soil permanently increased, 

 See COUCH. 



Holcus odoratus (repens) Sweet-scented soft- 

 grass or northern noly-grass. See HOLT- 

 GRASS. 



I have placed together in a tabular form the 

 comparative yield of produce of these grasses. 

 (Sinclair's Hort. Gram. Wob.) 



637 



