GRASSES. 



hogs and ducks, and geese eagerly 

 devour the seeds, winch are small, 

 but very sweet and nourishing. They 

 are collected in several parts of Ger- 

 many and Poland, under the name of 

 manna-sceds (schwaden), and are es- 

 teemed a delicacy in soups and gru- 

 els. When ground to meal, they 

 make bread very little inferior to that 

 from wheat. The bran is given to 

 horses that have the worms, but they 

 must be kept from water for some 

 hours afterward. Geese and other 

 water-fowl are very fond of the seeds. 

 So also are fish ; trout, in particular, 

 thrive in those rivers where this grass 

 grows in plenty. It has been recom- 

 mended to be sowed on meadows that 

 admit flooding ; but Curtis justly re- 

 marks that the flote fescue will not 

 flourish except in land that is con- 

 stantly under water, or converted 

 into a bog or swamp. 



" The water meadow grass {Poa 

 aquatica, c) is found chiefly in marsh- 

 es in the north and in Canada, but 

 will grow on strong clays, and yield, 

 as the Woburn experiments prove, a 

 prodigious produce, flowering from 

 June to September. It is one of the 

 largest grasses, rising to five feet. 



" The florin grass {Agrostis stolonife- 

 ra, d) is a very common grass, both in 

 wet and dry, rich and poor situations. 

 It is known in the United States as 

 Agrostis drcumbcns, and is a variety 

 of yl. alba. Few plants appear to be 

 more under the influence of local cir- 

 cumstances than this grass. On dry 

 soils it is worth nothing, but on rich, 

 marl soils, and m a moist soil, if we 

 may put confidence in the accounts 

 given of its produce in Ireland, it 

 is the most valuable of all herbage 

 plants. 



" It was first brought into notice 

 by Dr. Richardson in 1809, and sub- 

 sequently extolled, and its culture de- 

 tailed in various pamphlets by the 

 same gentleman. It appears to be 

 exclusively adapted for moist peat 

 soils or bogs. In The Code of Agri- 

 culture it is said, ' On mere bogs, the 

 florin yields a great weight of her- 

 bage, and is, perhaps, the most use- 

 ful plant that bogs can produce." 



According to Sir H. Davy, the florin 

 grass, to be in perfection, requires a 

 moist climate or a wet soil ; and it 

 grows luxuriantly in cold clays unfit- 

 ted for other grasses. In light sands, 

 and in dry situations, its produce is 

 much inferior as to quantity and qual- 

 ity. He saw four square yards of 

 florin grass cut in the end of January, 

 in a meadow, exclusively appropria- 

 ted to the cultivation of florin by the 

 Countess of Hardwicke, the soil of 

 w hich is a damp, stiflT clay. They af- 

 forded twenty-eight pounds of fodder, 

 of which one thousand parts afforded 

 sixty-four parts of nutritive matter 

 consisting nearly of one sixth of su- 

 gar, and flve sixths of mucilage, with 

 a little extractive matter. In anoth- 

 er experiment, four square yards gave 

 twenty-seven pounds of grass. Lady 

 Hardwicke has given an account of 

 a trial of this grass, wherein twenty- 

 three milch cows, and one young 

 horse, besides a number of pigs, were 

 kept a fortnight on the produce of 

 one acre. On the Duke of Bedford's 

 farm, at Maulden, florin hay was pla- 

 ced in the racks before horses, in 

 small, distinct quantities, alternately 

 with common hay ; but no decided 

 preference for either was manifested 

 by the horses in this trial. Fiorin 

 has been tried in the highlands of 

 Scotland, and a premium awarded in 

 1821 for a fleld of three acres planted 

 on land previously worth very little, 

 at Appin, in Argyleshire. (Highl. Soc. 

 Trans., vol. vi., p. 229.) Hay tea has 

 also been made from fiorin, and found 

 useful in rearing calves, being mixed 

 with oatmeal and skimmed milk. — 

 {Ibid., p. 233.) 



" There are other species of ^^os- 

 tis, as the A. palustris and rcpcns, and 

 some varieties of the A. slolomfcra, 

 that on common soils are little differ- 

 ent in their appearance and proper- 

 ties from fiorin. On one of these, 

 the narrow-leaved creeping bent (A. 

 stolonifcra var. angustifolia), the fol- 

 lowing remarks are made in the ac- 

 count of the Woburn experiments : 

 ' From a careful examrnation of the 

 creeping bent with narrow leaves, it 

 will doubtless appear to possess mer- 



