36 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF BRITISH GRASSES. 
Purrum—spike compact, glumes distinct, glumel of two 
equal awnless valves. 
P. pratense—timothy or catstail grass—glumes equal, 
much truncated, with long produced points, each valve cili- 
ated with a row of stiff hairs on the back.—P. 
This grass, under the name of catstail, is a common native, 
found everywhere in tolerably good pastures. It has been 
introduced among most others of our British pasture 
grasses to the American continent, where it appears to have 
attracted the attention of one Mr. Timothy Hanson, who 
probably first brought it out as a self-grass, in which culti- 
vated form it has become associated with his Christian name ; 
and hence the idea that some entertain that we got the 
species from America is erroneous, as it is not indigenous 
to that country, though it is quite true that we import from 
the States and Canada most of our seed under its name of 
timothy-grass. 
As a meadow-grass, it is to be recommended for the mass 
of its nutritive culms, which are anything but coarse with 
us, and especially in our hay season, as it is a late species ; 
it however yields comparatively little aftermath. 
As a self-grass, its cultivation has never been carried out 
to any extent in Britain. In the United States, however, 
and Canada, hundreds of acres may be seen occupied with 
the cultivated form—timothy-grass; and on the alluvial 
flats of the Ohio, and the broad alluvial lands left by the 
contraction of the American lakes, this grass yields enorm- 
ous crops, with spikes of flowers sometimes as much as six 
inches in length. 
It is a grass easy of cultivation, and particularly well 
adapted for growth on river flats or estuarine warp-land, on 
which it will yield much larger crops than any other grass, 
and, though somewhat harsh and coarse in such places, will 
yet be found to contain highly nutritive qualities, and is 
peculiarly adapted for admixture in chaff. 
There are several other species, but they have no parti- 
cular agricultural value. 
