FACT NUMBER ONE. 13 



confined to such grounds, nor indeed to any particular soil 

 or climate yet known. It is found to some extent in all 

 parts of the country ; it grows on the lowest and highest 

 points of land, and even in the streets of our great cities. It 

 is wonderfully tenatious of life, and to destroy it out of the 

 land, would prove more difficult probably than the destruc- 

 tion of the Canada Thistle. 



With respect to the character of this poison grass, it may 

 be well to observe that, in point of height, it has been found 

 to vary from three inches, at maturity, to thirty inches ; and 

 where the soil is very favorable, it sometimes rises to three 

 feet. Where it has free scope, it branches out from the root 

 and strays off in almost every direction, something like the 

 garden pursley, but in every few inches, it penetrates the 

 earth, and throws its roots downward and its stems upward. 

 Hence, the main or primitive root, has been known to send 

 up from one to three hundred stems or stalks, while the ava- 

 rage branches on a healthy stem ranges from ten to twelve 

 which form heads, and the seeds in each head run from four 

 to seven hundred. From these premises some notion may 

 be formed of the manner in which this troublesome grass is 

 propigated. 



The discoverer of the effects of this grass upon the horse, 

 &c, knowing no name for the plant, took the freedom of 

 calling it Slobber Grass ; nor has this appellation been 

 found to militate with any previous name ; for no one seems 

 to have known any term by which it was designated. The 

 Indians, so far as the Six Nations are concerned, have had no 

 name for it ; though some of them claim to have known it 



