36 



given, will be necessary to their distinction. The magnified views, 

 a and b, will show the entire serrulation of the glume-keel and 

 more complex veining of the outer palea in the present species ; 

 added to which the panicle is of a paler hue, and the branches and 

 branchlets, though similarly disposed, are less divaricated, pointing 

 upwards, and eventually closing upon each other instead of spread- 

 ing horizontally, as do those of A. vulgaris both during and after 

 flowering. 



Perennial. Flowers late in July. 



The two figures, given in plates 31 and 33, exhibit extremes in 

 the form of the panicle ; the first representing the normal condition 

 of A. alba, the second, one of the many varieties included under 

 A. stolonifera of Linnaeus and some later botanists. They cannot 

 be retained as distinct species, and I have preferred giving an ex- 

 ample of the latter from a specimen in the English Botany herba- 

 rium, to leaving it without illustration or selecting one more nearly 

 approaching the ordinary inflorescence of A. alba, exhibiting, as it 

 does, one of those remarkable departures from mere superficial 

 resemblance that occasionally occur among the species of the vege- 

 table kingdom. 



The Marsh Bent Grass is a troublesome weed in gardens, and 

 likewise on heavy arable land, being with difficulty separated from 

 the latter when it is broken up. It is one of the grasses commonly 

 known by the names of squitch and quick, probably in allusion to 

 the tenacity with which its creeping stems, or stolones, retain their 

 vitality when removed from the soil. The variety stolonifera, so 

 called from the number and extension of these stolones, has been 

 long a subject of interest and inquiry among agriculturists, on 

 account of the enormous produce attributed to it by some observers. 

 It was one of the species noticed by Dr. Maton on a small tract of 

 meadow land at Orcheston, near Salisbury, remarkable for the 

 quantity of hay yielded by it in favourable seasons ; and which, 

 mown twice a year, amounted to near five tons per acre for the 

 first crop and about half as much for the second. The land in 

 question, two acres and a half in extent, is described, however, as 

 pecuharly circumstanced, being occasionally inundated during the 

 winter by a spring fiowing out of a limestone rock ; and the pro- 

 portion in which this grass existed upon it seems doubtful, as it 

 was accompanied by Poa trivialis, the Rough Meadow Grass, and 

 specimens of both species were collected measuring from seven to 

 ten feet in length. Farther, and perhaps more direct attention to 

 its merits as an agricultural grass, was excited by Dr. Richardson, 

 under its Irish appellation of Piorin, and numerous experiments 

 were made in regard to its capabilities in cultivation, the general 

 results of which do not appear to have proved very favourable : in 

 the account given of those at Woburn it is observed, that it appears 



