93 



ally met with in our English shops, being used here as a delicacy or 

 luxury for making light puddings and gruels, and for thickening and 

 flavouring soups; but in some parts of the Continent, especially in 

 Germany and Poland, their use is more general, and the plant is culti- 

 vated to a considerable extent for obtaining a crop. In regard to 

 nutritive qualities, they hold a high rank among the different kinds of 

 grain, and are said to form a bread, little, if at all, inferior to that made 

 from wheat. They afford a grateful food to all graniverous birds, 

 and to geese, ducks, swans, and other water-fowl especially, as weU 

 as to many species of fresh-water fishes, but above all to the trout ; 

 hence the growth of this grass on the borders of streams, ponds, lakes, 

 and swampy places about preserves, decoys, &c., is deserving encou- 

 ragement by those interested. 



The sharp bran obtained in the preparation of the manna seeds is 

 used on the Continent for destroying intestinal worms in horses, its 

 action being mechanical, like that of the Indian remedy in the human 

 subject, known as Cowitch, the pungent hairs on the pods of the Mucuna 

 pniriens. After administering the dose the horses are kept for a time 

 without water, which is supposed to impair its efficacy. 



Genus 31. TKIODIA. Heath Grass. 



Gen. Chae. Inflorescence raceme-like. Spikeleta stalked, alternate, 

 compressed, two- to four-flowered. Glumes two, nearly equal, 

 acute, three-veined, as long as the flowers. Paleae two ; the 

 lower one somewhat coriaceous, rounded on the back, three- 

 toothed at the apex, hairy below ; the upper one obtuse, with two 

 marginal veins. 



A genus established by Dr. K. Brown for the reception of certain 

 Australian and South American grasses. A single species, formerly 

 associated with Poa, belongs, perhaps, exclusively to Europe. The 

 name, from the Greek treis, three, and odous, teeth, alludes to the 

 triple division of the apex of the lower palea. 



The European ^lant has much more the habit of a Festuca than of 

 a Poa, and ' was by Linnaeus placed in the former genus, although 

 regarded by him as allied to Melica. 



Tbiodia decumbens. Decumbent Heath Grass. Plate LXXVI. 



Panicle erect, usually simple or racemose. Spikelets few, ovate, 

 about four-flowered, not longer than the glumes. Ligule a tuft of 

 hairs. 



Triodia decumbens, Beauvois. Smith. Lindley. Hooker. E. B. 

 ed. 2. 135. Poa decumbens, Withering. E. B. 792. Festuca 

 decumbens. Lhirueus. 



Frequent on mountainous and hilly pastures, heaths, and moors, 

 throughout the kingdom, though chiefly in poor, wet soils, or in such 



