POA. 



277 



account it is tender though productive. In rich land it 

 grows tall. Its fattening property is considerable. It 

 is, however, apt to go off 

 after mowing, being over- 

 powered by those grasses of 

 the bent kind. Its radical 

 leaves, as well as those on 

 the stem, grow much larger 

 than in the P. pratensis" 

 Messrs. Wheeler do not re- 

 commend this grass to be 

 grown by itself, as its pro- 

 duce is then inferior in 

 quantity 5 but they praise its 

 qualities as an ingredient in 

 a mixed crop, particularly 

 its early and late growth, its 

 nutritious properties, and 

 the partiality which oxen, 

 horses, and sheep evince for 

 it. It yields a greater bulk of hay than the Rye- grass, 

 and its quality is of a higher order. 



This Poa is best when in seed, and should therefore 

 be cut for hay in July. 



Mr. John Worlidge gives an account of this grass, 

 which he calls Orcheston grass, which we think must be 

 overrated. " At Maddington, in Wiltshire, about nine 

 miles from Salisbury, grows a grass, in a small plot ot 

 meadow ground, which, in some years, grows to a pro- 

 digious length — sometimes twenty- four feet long — but 

 not in height, as is usually reported ; the length being 

 caused by the washing of a sheep-down, that the rain in 

 a hasty shower brings with it much of the sheep-dung 



