pasture land not rising more than a few inches^ while in meadows 

 they attain a foot, and, under the shelter of woods, in which this. 

 grass is far from uncommon, sometimes two or three feet. The 

 inflorescence is similarly diversified, from a short slender spike, 

 about half the size of the smaller one on our Plate, to a form in 

 which the stalks of the lower spikelets are so much lengthened as 

 to render it conspicuously paniculate, a state represented in the 

 larger figure. The structure of the flowers, upon which the generic 

 character is founded, will be understood by reference to the mag- 

 nified views ; a, showing one of the spikelets with its two unequal 

 glumes, the outer or lower one being the smaller, while the two 

 stamens and two stigmas of the middle fertile flower appear between 

 them ; at b, are the two short paleee of this flower, seen as separated 

 from between the two awned scales representing the lateral abor- 

 tive ones at c : the objects of both these latter figures are supposed 

 to be included within the glumes of the spikelet at a. The Sweet- 

 scented Vernal Grass is the only British species in which the flowers 

 have constantly two stamens in each, the fertile or seed-bearing 

 ones of all the others being triandrous, i. e. having three. 



Bruised by walking over it, or rubbed between the hands, espe- 

 cially during the flowering season, this grass diffuses an odour some- 

 what resembhng that of Gum Benzoin, and has long been regarded 

 as the source of the peculiar scent of new-mown hay : other indi- 

 genous species yield, however, a similar, though less powerful 

 perfume, dependent upon a volatile essential oil, and therefore 

 readily dissipated by the process of drying. Boccone, as quoted 

 by Withering, mentions that, in his time, a distilled water was 

 prepared from the Anthoxanthum as a vehicle for some perfumes. 



Some of the earlier writers upon the relative qualities of British 

 grasses as fodder, seem to regard that before us as a valuable and 

 important one to the farmer. Stillingfleet observes, that, " being 

 found on such kinds of pastures as sheep are fond of, and from 

 whence excellent mutton comes, it is most likely to be a good grass 

 for sheep pastures," and recommends the collection of its seeds, 

 which he assures us, from his own experience, are " very easy to 

 gather : " and I have, somewhere else, met with a proposition for 

 sowing it on those sheep downs where it does not exist, in order to 

 improve the flavour of the mutton. In opposition to such practice, 

 I have myself observed that on some of those of Kent and Sussex 

 its leaves are, almost constantly, left untouched by the sheep, or 

 only cropped when, in dry seasons, food becomes scarce. In the 

 experiments made by Linnaeus and his colleagues, it appears that 

 cows, horses, goats and sheep ate it when offered to them apart ; 

 but these experiments were too limited, and too carelessly conducted 

 to warrant the importance attached to them at the time; and, as 

 far as the last-mentioned animals are concerned, Stillingfleet's 



