29 
BOTANY AS APPLIED TO VETERINARY SCIENCE, 
By W. Watson, M.R.C.V.S., Rugby. 
[Continuedfromp. 646, vol. xxxii.) 
Before continuing my remarks on the grasses, allow me, 
in reply to the kind suggestion of Mr. Dickens, of Kimbolton, 
contained in your last number, to state that 1 shall be 
pleased to communicate all I know respecting the poisonous 
properties of the different varieties of the “yew;” but I trust 
that he will pardon my doing so until I arrive at that por¬ 
tion of my subject under which I propose to consider the 
poisonous plants generally, when I assure him that a subject 
of so unusual an interest to our profession shall receive 
every attention from me. 
Grasses continued. 
Anthoxanthum odoratum (sweet vernal grass).— “Panicle, 
spicate; glumes , unequal; glumel , double, outer one with 
short awns; stamens, two: styles , two 55 (Buckman); named 
from the Greek word anthos, a flower, and xanthus, yellow. 
This indigenous perennial grass is found in almost all 
pastures, and at all elevations, but flourishes most in rich, 
moist soils. It is one of our earliest flowering spring grasses, 
but produces only a small quantity of herbage, which unless 
iube largely mixed with other grasses is not much relished 
by cattle, on account of its peculiarly strong taste. Its chief 
value consists in the very agreeable and fragrant odour it 
imparts to our meadow hay. This odour, said by some to 
resemble that of woodruff, and by others strongly scented tea, 
is most perceptible in its dried state, and is produced from a 
great number of small glands, containing an essential oil, 
situated on its glumes. “ The essential oil obtained from 
this plant may be used as a mild aromatic and stimulant. 
It is one of the very few plants which in their green and 
ripe state contain benzoic acid.” In its green state it con¬ 
tains 80 per cent, of mucilage, 2 of saccharine matter, and 
18 of bitter extraction. I have found this grass to be exten¬ 
sively ergotized this past summer. 
Dactylis glomerata (rough cockVfoot grass).— (i Panicle, 
with the primary branches long; pedicels, short, so that the 
flowers are clustered in bunches ; glume, of two unequal 
valves, arranged obliquely; glumel, pointed, almost awned ; 
