218 



BNITEB STATES^ 



to prevent their falling off. For a long time it was 

 supposed that it was peculiar to low moist soils, but 

 we now know from the successful and extensive ex- 

 periments of a distinguished native of Pennsylvania,*^ 

 that upland, when properly prepared and enriched, 

 is equally congenial to it as the created soil of our ri- 

 vers:: a discovery which has served, among other 

 causes, greatly to enrich the state. 



Dr. Muhlenberg assures the author that this plant 

 is not described by Linnaeus, though nearly allied to 

 his poa angustifolia. It may be easily known by the 

 following description. Culm (or haulm) erect and 

 round, (columnar) panicle diijlise, spicules five- 

 flowered, and hairy at their base." Such is the 

 tendency of this grass to take possession of rich 

 ground, that if the meadows on the Delaware be 

 ploughed and sown with grain and clover seeds, the 

 green grass will smother the clover after the first 

 year. 



Blue grass^ fioa comiiressa L... reJnvasen of the 

 Germans, a native grass of the United States, having 

 a compressed oblique culm, (or haulm) panicle 

 squeezed, spicules round, (columnar) and eight- 

 Sowered. This is eaten tolerably well by cattle 

 when young, and remains green until frost. It binds 

 the soil in the course of three or four years, so as to 

 require ploughing up. This is often mistaken for the 

 green grass, and both are called occasionally sfjear 

 grass^ and wire grass. In wet seasons or in moist 

 places it affords good pasture, but is not to be com- 

 pared to the former grass. 



* William West, whose merit as a farmer, is as great as tliat of hlS 

 Er/&^Ji?gr Bejjj^^iji, in historical painting. 



