68 



of its family, its produce is too small to yield other than a very 

 scanty crop in hay ; hence, under the rotation system, many prac- 

 tical farmers consider it little better than a weed, and, as such, 

 would exclude it altogether from the list of economical species re- 

 commended for laying down new meadows. Another objection 

 that has been urged is " that, although a dwarf plant, it has large 

 spreading roots, and is so prolific, by spreading its abundant seeds 

 in every direction the same year that it is sown, that it is seldom 

 that a bare space of ground is not quickly occupied by it, to the 

 exclusion or detriment of more productive and better grasses." 

 Observation will satisfy any one interested in grass lands that such 

 objections are altogether unimportant, as, so far from displacing the 

 more productive grasses, it is itself soon overpowered by them, 

 unless in situations where frequent treading assists it in establishing 

 dominion over them : such is the case in many of the park and 

 square inclosures in and about the metropolis and other large towns, 

 where this grass sometimes constitutes the chief portion of the 

 green sward, — while in the open and less-frequented meadow and 

 pasture it will probably only be noticed about the footpaths and 

 roads by which they are traversed. It is a troublesome and per- 

 severing weed in gardens, especially on gravel walks, from which 

 it can only be successfully eradicated by careful and frequent re- 

 moval as soon as it appears : a very customary remedy is to strew 

 salt over it during damp weather, renewing the application from 

 time to time until the grass is destroyed, by which period the box- 

 edgings and not a few valuable border plants will probably have 

 disappeared likewise. 



The Annual Meadow Grass is a vegetable colonist, indigenous to 

 the whole of the northern hemisphere, its tropical regions scarcely 

 forming any exception, — while it seems to have followed European 

 cultivation wherever that has been extended into the southern. 



It is sometimes called Suffolk Grass by the older writers. 



** Root fibrous, perennial ; not stoloniferous. Lower panicle branches 

 solitary or in pairs. Dorsal and marginal veins of the lower 

 palea hairy or silky. 



PoA BULBosA. Bulbous Mcadow Grass. Plate LVI. 



Panicle erect, more or less compact. Spikelets ovate, three- or 

 four-flowered; flowers connected by a web. Lower palea with 

 three silky veins. Stems swollen or bulb-like at the base. Leaves 

 with a narrow, white, cartilaginous, serrated margin. Upper leaf 

 much shorter than its sheath ; ligule prominent, acute. 



Poa bulbosa, Linnaus. E. B. 1071 ; ed. 3. 128. Generally adopted. 



This is a very local species in England, being almost exclusively 



