BOTANY AS APPLIED TO VETERINARY SCIENCE. 645 
the Alopecurus pratensis (meadow fox-tail-grass). When 
the spikelets have long pedicels (foot-stalks), they form a 
panicle, as in Agrostis stolonifera (fiorin-grass). When the 
flowers are all stalked along a common peduncle, it is termed 
a raceme, as in Triodia (heath-grass). Many other interest¬ 
ing subjects connected with^the grasses may be obtained 
from a very cheap and useful little work, by Professor Buck- 
man, entitled ‘The Natural History of British Pasture and 
Meadow Grasses. 5 
When consulted on these matters we should endeavour, as 
much as possible, to direct the attention of the agriculturist 
to the comparative nutritive value of the different grasses, 
both as for pasture, and when made into hay ; a fact which is 
apt to be too much lost sight of by him. The effects of 
large quantities of innutritious food is often well observed 
in the diseased state of the digestive and respiratory organs 
of many of our common cart-horses. I shall, therefore, give 
a brief outline of those grasses only which are considered the 
most valuable, either as affording good pasture or hay. 
Poa (meadow-grass)— Ci Panicle , lax ; locusta, of from five 
to ten florets ; glume , of unequal valves, the inner glumel 
notched at the extremity 55 (Buckman) ; named Poa from the 
Greek w 7 ord Pao , to feed. 
Under this head are described six principal varieties of 
meadow-grasses, but I shall confine my remarks to only two 
of the most interesting. 
Poa Annua (annual meadow T -grass).— “Locusta, of about 
five florets, not w r ebbed ’ 5 (Buckman). 
This grass appears to be liked, as food, by all herbivorous 
animals. It is also one of our most widely distributed grasses, 
being found in almost all temperate climates, at all elevations 
between the sea-level and 2000 feet above it. So generally 
diffused is this grass, that it is found not only in the meadow’, 
but “ on the banks, by the road-side, among the mosses 
and stonecrops of the w 7 all, on the garden path, among the 
stones of the beach just beyond the reach of the tide, w ith 
the reeds by the river, on the churchyard grave, and between 
the crevices of the city pavements, where the foot of the 
passenger daily treads.’ 5 It continues flowering and ripen¬ 
ing its seeds, according to Sinclair, from the 18th of April to 
the frosts of winter. It is more valuable w hen mixed with 
other grasses, as affording fresh green herbage through many 
months of the year, than when made into hay. According 
to Professor Buckman, it has hardly any feeding properties; 
and on some of Lord de Manley’s land, notorious for scouring 
cattle, this grass was the prevailing one. This deleterious 
xxxn. 85 
