Order I. 
POLYGAMIA MONCECIA. 
861 
14205 Racemes panicled, Bractes shorter than peduncle. Petals with 2 glands at base 
14?06 Racemes supradecompound panicled, Bractes of branches linear- lanceolate very long 
14207 Racemes panicled. Petals bearing the stamens on their claw 
14208 Spike simple. Flowers twin : hermaphrodite sessile awned ; male stalked. Outer valve of cal. nerved 
14209 Spike simple. Lower flower beardless, Male and hermaphrodite calyxes hairy, Awns very long hirsute 
14210 Spikes imbric. conjug. panic, bract. Fls. in 3s : midd. hermap. beard. : beard smooth : lat. stalk, malebcardl. 
14211 Spikes twin terminal. Florets twin bearded : hermaphrodite sessile j male bearded, Culm undivided 
14212 Spikes digitate about 3, Florets alternate sessile beardless 
14213 Spikes digitate about 8, Florets twin woolly at base : hermaphrodite sessile bearded ; male stalked bearded 
14214 Spikes 4-5-6 straight erect. Florets imbric. nearly smooth beardless. Outer valve of cal. beard. Culm compr. 
14215 Spikes digitate about 5 erect, Glumes ciliated 
14216 Spikes many fascicled nearly erect, Florets subulate smooth 
14217 Spikes many fascicled. Glumes ciliated bearded, Male valves ventricose bearded 
14218 Spikes many alternate panicled pendulous, Spikelets 4-flowered 
14219 Panicle contracted ovate, Florets strigose with down black. Seeds white round 
14220 Panicle contracted oblong. Florets obovate shining hairy. Seeds compressed 
14221 Panicle spreading. Florets oblong acute shining ciliated 
14222 Panicle effuse. Branches spreading. Florets villous oblong. Leaves broad lanceolate 
14223 Panicle spreading. Branches rough, Florets lane, acute silky shining. Leaves lanceolate rough at edge 
14224 Panicle effuse spreading. Branches whorled 3-fl. Peduncles bearded. Leaves and sheaths hairy 
14225 Glumes 2-fl. hermaphrodite. Sessile floret beardless stalked bearded. Beard longer than flower 
14226 Glumes 2-fl. : hermaphrodite beardless, Beard of the male much shorter than flower recurved 
14227 Male flowers with a jointed beard twice as long as calyx, Joints of culm smooth. Root nodose 
14228 Male flowers with a jointed beard twice as long as calyx. Joints of culm villous. Root bulbous ]_Gm. 
14229 Panicle spread. Glumes 3-fl. beardl. Flor. heaped : hermap. in midd. diand. j male triand. ciliat. Hierochloe 
14230 Leaves lane. Florets naked, Outer valve of cal. with 2 nodules on each side, Beard of cor. long twisted 
14231 Leaves lanceolate. Neuter florets intermediate wrinkled across : two lateral smooth 
and Miscellaneous Particulars. 
2132. Holcus. From iXaai, to extract. It was a popular notion among the ancients, that the leaves of the 
plant they called Holcus, which seems to have been a grass of some kind, had the property of extracting thorns 
from the flesh. H. mollis is distinguished by its creeping roots, which, when once in possession of the soil, as 
Mr. Sinclair observes, can hardly be again expelled without great labor and expence. It is the true couch- 
grass of light sandy soils, and underground stolones have been found five feet in length, the growth of a few 
months only. These root-shoots contain a very considerable quantity of nutritive matter, which has the flavor 
of new made meal. Pigs are very fond of the roots, and dig them up with eagerness ; but the herbage is dis- 
liked by cattle, more than that of any other species of the genus, being extremely soft, dry, and tasteless. 
The best mode of banishing this weed from light arable lands, is to collect the roots with the fork after the 
plough. {Sinclair, Hort. Gram. 167.) 
H. lanatus has a fibrous root, and grows on all soils from the richest to the poorest, but attains to the highest 
degree of luxuriance on light moist peaty soils. Cattle prefer almost any other grass to this ; it is seen in 
pastures with full grown perfect leaves, while the grasses that surround it are cropped to the roots. Its nutri- 
tive matter consists entirely of mucilage and sugar ; while the nutritive matters of grasses most liked by cattle 
are either sub-acid or saline. Mr. Sinclair suggests, that this grass might probably be made more palatable to 
cattle, by being sprinkled over with salt. {Hort. Gram. 164.) 
H. avenaceus, the Avena elatior of LinriEeus, Curtis, and Host, is a bulky productive grass, eaten by horses, 
cattle, and sheep, but less nutritious than many other grasses. It pushes rapidly after being cropped; and 
though later in flowering than many other species, produces an early and plentiful suj)ply of herbage in the 
spring. These properties would entitle it to rank high as a grass adapted for the alternate husbandry, but its 
nutritive matter contains too large a proportion of bitter extractive and saline matters to warrant its cultiva- 
tion, without a considerable admixture of different grasses ; and the same objection extends to its culture for 
permanent pasture. It is always present in the composition of the best natural pastures, and, as before men- 
tioned, eaten in common with other grasses. It does not, however, constitute a large proportion of the 
herbage, but rather the least of any of the more valuable grasses that have been mentioned. {Hori. Gram. 
p. 171.) This grass and Triticum repens are the two species eaten by dogs to excite vomiting. One variety 
has bulbous roots, and is a noxious weed in arable lands. 
H. odoratus is one of the earliest flowering grasses ; but it is tender, the spring produce of herbage is incon- 
siderable, and its powerful creeping roots render it unfit for agricultural purposes. {Hort. Gram. 169.) 
2133. IschcBmum. From Kryj^, to stop, and ocifjuoe,, blood. Pliny says, that the Thracians first discovered that 
the woolly seed which is borne by the Ischsemum, if introduced into the nostrils, has the power of stopping 
the bleeding at the nose. Useless grasse.s. 
