17 



truncate, terminating in an awn or mucro less than half their 

 length : ciliated on the; keel. No rudimentary flower. 



Phleum pratense, Linrueus. E. B. 1076; ed. 2. 79. Generally 

 adopted. 



Very frequent' in meadows and pastures, where, unless in veiy 

 dry soils, it has a tendency to creep at the root and interfere with 

 the growth of others among which it vegetates. The flowering 

 stems are rigid, erect from a little above the base, and vary from a 

 foot to eighteen inches or more in height, terminating in a long 

 cylindrical, densely spicate inflorescence, three to seven inches in 

 length. The glumes, very much compressed, are membranaceous 

 towards the margin, but with a strongly marked green line along 

 the keel, which is ciliated with fine hairs that render the spike very 

 soft to the touch : their general outline terminates very abruptly, 

 but an extension of the keel vein in the form of a bristle gives them 

 the appearance of having a terminal awn. a, represents the fore- 

 going character of the glumes; b, the solitary flower, removed from 

 between them ; c, the pistil. 



Soil and situation afiect the habit of this grass so greatly that 

 accidental varieties have been occasionally regarded as distinct 

 species. On "barren pastures and road-sides it is often decumbent, 

 and the flower-spikes less than an inch in length. In some 

 instances, the lowermost joints of the stems become swollen in the 

 form of tubers, constituting the Phleum nodosum of Linnaeus and 

 later botanists ; a variety of not unfrequent occurrence in the dry 

 elevated sheep pastures of Wales and other hilly or mountainous 

 districts. In moist rich soil, both of these lose their peculiarities 

 and assume the normal character of the species to which they 

 appertain. 



Much difference of opinion seems at all times to have prevailed, 

 among our scientific agriculturists, in regard to the value of this 

 grass, and the question is far from being decided at present. Atten- 

 tion was first directed to it in this country, owing to the circum- 

 stance of its having been brought over from New York or Carolina 

 as a novelty, towards the close of the last century, by Timothy 

 Hanson, whence, indeed, the name by which it is most generally 

 known among our farmers. The praises bestowed upon it by some 

 writers and experimenters, and the neglect and even condemnation 

 it has received from others, are results of the varied circumstances 

 under which their experience was obtained, and ought to be ap- 

 preciated with caution. That it is not a grass suited naturally to 

 the climate of Great Britain appears, it has been remarked, from 

 its not being generally found in the best natural pastures; a fact 

 by no means substantiated by my own observation, as there are 

 few such pastures upon which it does not exist, though in exceed 



