646 BOTANY AS APPLIED TO VETERINARY SCIENCE. 
property may probably be owing to the large amount of 
water it contains, and which, according to Professor Way, 
amounts to 79*14 per cent. 
Poa pratensis (smooth-stalked meadow-grass ).—“ Locusta 
of about four acute flowers, with a web ; culm and herbage 
smooth; ligule short and blunt; rhizome creeping ” (Buck- 
man). 
This perennial grass, although allied to the above, is much 
more valuable, both for the feed it throws up early in the 
spring, as well as for the quantity of hay it yields. It flowers 
and ripens its seed from June to July. It contains a large 
amount of nutritious matter (according to Sir H. Davy, 78 
parts in 1000), and its presence generally indicates good and 
well-drained land. 
Hordeum pratense (meadow-barley).— “Spike, upright and 
compact; glumes all bristle-like and rough, not fringed; 
outer glumella of the middle spikelet about as long as its awn ; 
lateral spikelets, with neither stamens nor pistils; central flower 
largest and perfect; root fibrous, annual” (Pratt). 
This grass is generally found in good meadows, and con¬ 
tains a large amount of nutriment, although it produces 
but little herbage. It flowers and ripens its seed from the 
middle of June to the middle of August. I have found this 
grass to be much affected with ergot this autumn ; but its 
chief peculiarity consists in the effect it produces upon the 
mouths of animals when made into hay. An instance of this 
came last year under my notice, and which I think possesses 
sufficient interest to be recorded. 
On the 7th of July, 1858, I was requested by Mr. Darby, 
an extensive dealer in horses, residing at Rugby, to look at 
two of his horses, which appeared to have something the 
matter with their mouths. Upon a cursory examination, I 
could only detect a slight redness of the mucous membrane, 
and consequently I gave each of them a dose of cooling 
medicine, thinking that the affection might probably have 
proceeded from some slight derangement of the digestive 
organs. 
On the following day, however, I was sent for again, and 
informed that a great many more of the horses had become 
affected with sore mouths. Upon examining the entire stud 
I found between twenty and thirty which were more or less 
affected. The leading symptoms were a discharge of saliva, 
frequently rubbing the nose and lips against the manger, and 
refusing food. I then made a more careful examination, and 
found a great number of small pieces of what appeared like 
chaff sticking very firmly to the buccal membrane, around 
