No. 133.] 2C9 



Farmerh Ciub, June \ bfh, 1853. 

 Judge Van Wyck in the chair. Henry Meigs Secretary. 

 Present, Professors Enderlin, Antisell, Mapes and others. 

 The secretary read the following papers prepared by him- 



ON NATIVE GRASSES. 



In the great geological survey of the State of New- York, a work 

 which was undertaken by Ihe government of the State, upon a 

 representation of the utility and necessity of it, being made by 

 the American Institute in 1835, on motion of Edwin Williams, a 

 well known and worthy member — we find in section Flora, vol. 

 6, by Professor Torrey, an account of our grasses. It may be 

 well to state in our vegetable kingdom, we have 1,450 species 

 of flowering plants, of which 1.200 are herbaceous, and 150 

 may be regarded as ornamental. Of woody plants we have 

 250 species, including 80 which attain the stature of trees. Of 

 plants reputed to be medicinal, we have (native and naturalized) 

 150 species. The naturalized plants exceed 160 species. Many 

 of them have been introduced from Europe with grain and other 

 agricultural products, and among them some of our most trouble- 

 some weeds. Indeed, throughout our northern States, almost all 

 the plants that are injurious to the farmer, are of foreign origin ; 

 and many useful species have likewise been so thoroughly natu- 

 ralized and so widely spread, that they everywhere spring spon- 

 taneously from our soil. The grasses of our meadows, parks, 

 lawns and road sides, are, with few exceptions, naturalized Euro- 

 pean species. The following are principal kinds : pleum pratense 

 or timothy ; agrostis polymorphaor florin ; anthoxanthum odora- 

 tum or sweet scented spring grass ; holcus lanatus or meadow 

 soft grass; fesluca pratensis or meadow fescue; poa annua, tri- 

 vialis, compressa, dactylis, glomerata and lolium pratense. The 

 annual meadow grass poa annua, is the most common of all the 

 grasses, and the least absolute in its habits. 



It is almost the only grass that will grow in towns. Though 

 an annual, yet it is found in most meadows and pastures, perpe- 

 tually flowering, affording a sweet herbage, relished by all atock, 



