OBSERVATIONS ON GRASSES. 387 
that was occupied by his father when he was a 
boy , was covered with a kind of grafs> that main- 
tained five far m-horfes in good heart from April to 
the end of harveft without giving them any other 
kind of food, and that it yielded more than they 
could eat . He at my defire brought me fome of the 
grafs , which proved to be the flote FESCUE with 
a mixture of the marfh BENT ; whether this la ft 
contributes much towards fur nijhing fo good pafture 
for horfes i cannot fay . They both throw out roots 
at the joynts of the ftalks , and therefore likely to 
grow to a great length. In the index of dubious 
plants at the end of Rafis Synopfis , there is mention 
made of a grafs under the name of Gramen ca-r 
ninum fupinum longiffimum , growing not far from 
Salifbury 2 4 feet long. This muft by its length be 
a grafs with a creeping ftalk ; and that there is 
a grafs in Wiltfihire growing in watery meadows 
fo valuable , that an acre of it lets from 10 to 12 
pounds 9 i have been informed by fever al perfons , 
Thefe circumftances incline me to think it m'uft be 
the flote fefcue \ but whatever grafs it be r it cer- 
tainly muft deferve to be inquired after , 
There is a clamminefs on the ear of the flote 
fefcue when the feeds are ripe that taftes like honey \ 
as i have often found, and for this teafon perhaps 
they are called manna feeds . 
C c 2 Linn^us 
