170 TRIANDRIA. DIGYNIA. Poa. 
that it is twenty-four feet long; that hogs are fatted with it, and that it 
also grows in some places in Wales. Ray Syn. Indiculus. PI. Dub. Mr. 
Swayne informs me that the part of the meadow in which he found this 
grass, is in the parish of Maddington, and that Maddington and Orcheston 
St. Mary are divided only by a small stream.* 
* I requested the favour of Mr. Swayne to send me specimens of this celebrated 
grass, which he was so obliging to do, and also to add the following account of it, 
which I transcribe with pleasure, as being, I believe, the best yet given to the public: 
-—“The late worthy Edmund Rack, first Secretary of the Bath Agricultural Society, 
was sent to Orcheston, (as you read in one of their volumes), to investigate this won¬ 
derful grass. After his return, he showed me some specimens which he brought back 
with him, at the same time informing me, that the meadow had been mown before he 
came there, and that he had picked his specimens from the hay-mow. These were so 
imperfect, that it would probably have puzzled a skilful Botanist to have determined 
the species, much less could I pretend to do this. I knew, however, enough to satisfy 
myself, that it was some species of Agrostis. I had thoughts of visiting the place myself 
for a long time, but the distance of forty miles still made me defer it. At length, being on 
a visit to a friend in Somersetshire, he told me he had been to see the famous Orcheston 
grass, that he had been so lucky as to be there at the time the meadow was mowing, had 
been directed to the real Long Grass by the farmer and labourers at work, and had 
brought back with him living plants and specimens of the flowers. When he produced 
the latter, you may guess my surprise to find them specimens of Alopecurus pratensis of 
very large growth. I carried home with me a plant, and set it in my garden. It pro¬ 
duced, the spring following, a very fine tuft of the flowering spikes of Alopecurus pratensis. 
This occurrence at once determined me to visit Orcheston, which I did the year follow¬ 
ing, the first week in June. When I arrived, the greatest part of the meadow, or rather 
meadows, (for there are several partitions, though the whole is not more than two or 
three acres,) indeed all, except one corner, about a quarter of an acre, had been mown, 
and the grass was then lying in small cocks. The standing part had one uniform 
appearance, and presented a thick and beautiful assemblage of the flowering panicles 
of what I take to be Poa trivialis palustris of Hudson. A specimen shall be sent for your 
decision. I examined the grass cocks, and no other flowers of grass appeared, except 
here and there a few spikes of Alopecurus. The grass which had not been cut, was 
lodged, or lying on the ground, and had put forth roots at the knots (geniculi)and began 
to be erect only at the last knot or two. I was informed that these meadows are mown 
twice annually, the first time the latter end of May or beginning of June, and the second 
time the latter end of July or beginning of August. It will readily occur to you, that 
no grasses, but those that flower early could be in bloom at the first mowing, and that 
whatever grasses are in blossom at the last mowing must be of the late flowering kinds. 
Mr. Davies says, in his Wiltshire Report to the Board of Agriculture, that “ Mr. Sole 
has determined the Orcheston grass to be the Agrostis stolonifera, and probably that 
grass may be predominant, perhaps the only grass in flower, at the time of the last 
mowing, but I think it can make no part of the first crop.” 
On the supposition that the grass constituting the great crop of this enviable meadow 
is at length ascertained, it follows that its great fertility is not merely owing to the kind 
of grass, for that is not uncommon on the sides of broad wet ditches, and with us begins 
to flower the first week in June. But it has been observed that the crop in the Orches¬ 
ton meadow depends much upon the flooding of it in the winter. I will hazard a 
conjecture, that the advantages of flooding land depend less upon any supposed quality 
of the water, than upon its temperature. That when brought over the turf soon after it 
issues from the spring, as is the case at Orcheston, it enjoys a temperature equal to 48 
or 49 degrees of Fahrenheit’s thermometer, which it communicates to the surface of the 
meadow and to the roots of the grass, whilst the temperature of the atmosphere may be 
much lower; so that its action is similar to that of a hot wall upon the branches of fruit 
trees. 
In Linn. Tr. vol. 5, Mr. Maton says, he is satisfied that the Long Grass of 
Orcheston is not only not a species peculiar to the spot, but that it is composed of most 
of the species which grow in other meadows, and this certainly appears the most pro¬ 
bable solution of the mystery, especially when we consider the peculiarly sheltered 
