HORDEUM PRATENSE. (Lin.) 
MEADOW BARLEY GRASS. (Hudson.) 
WALL BARLEY GRASS. WAY BENNET. (Withering.) 
Light foot has not this fpecics. 
The Meadow Barley-Grafs grows chiefly on ground that is fomewhat moift. There is another fpecies ot this 
Grals which grows on walls and by the tides of roads, but is fcarcely ever to be met with in meadow or pathire 
.rounds. This laft mentioned fpecics has its fpikes and likewiie the beards of the hulks much longer than thole 
of the Meadow Barley , and is often called by the common people in England Way Bennet, and by the inhabitants 
of Scotland Squirrel-railed Grafs. See Curtiss Flora , article Hordeum murinum. 
Dr. Withering has made the pratenfe a variety of the murinum-, but they are certainly very diftind lpecies. 
The Hprdeum murinum is an annual plant; the pratenfe a perennial. 
The Meadow-Barley flowers the third week in July. 
Its Tips arc of a briniftone colour. 
P H L E U M PRATENSE. (Lin.) 
MEADOW CATSTAIL GRASS. (Hudson.) 
TIMOTHY GRASS. (Withering.) 
MEADOW CATSTAIL or TIMOTHY GRASS. (Lichtfoot.) 
A fpecies of the Phleum (but it is uncertain whether it be the fame as the meadow Catftail found wild in this 
country) is at prefent cultivated, pretty generally, by the Farmers in North America, under the name of Timothy 
Grafs. And attempts were made between twenty and thirty years ago to eftablith the culture of it in this country ; 
without fuccefs. It is recorded to have obtained the name of Timothy Grafs from a Mr. Timothy Hanson; who 
was the firft cultivator of it. In the Muleum rufticum, vol. 2d, p. 161, it is faid to be cut green by the Americans 
for feeding their cattle, in the fame manner Lucerne often is ufed in Europe, and is afferted to be fo luxuriant as 
to yield them feveral crops in a fummer; and that the inhabitants reckon it very wholefome, fweet, nourifhing 
food. From this defeription it Ihould feem to be a different fpecies from ours, which does not fpriog early, nor 
vegetate with any luxuriance till late in the feafon. 
The Spikes of the Catftail in fome fituations, as in wet ditches, are fometiraes fix or feven inches long. The 
feeds of ibis Grafs remain well on the ftalks. 
It flowers the laft. week in July. 
The anthers are fmalt, and of a dark purple colour. 
AGROSTIS ALBA. (Lin.) 
MARSH BENT. (Hudson, Withering and Lightfoot.) 
The difficulty of diftinguifhing the different fpecies of the lame Genus, is perhaps in no family of the Grades 
io great as in that oi the Agroilw. The parts of fructification are to minutc 3 and the fpecific differences fo incon- 
liderable, as to have occalionsd much obfeurity in the descriptions of botanical Writers. Air. Curtis has 
obferved, " that no character in the Graffes is more inconftant than the awn, arifta, or beard; in fome Grades 
“ whole chanidirer it is to be mulica (without awns) it is prefent, as in the Lolium perenne, Agroftis capillaris, and 
“ a " m j an “ m others whole character it is to be ari/latee fawned) it is wanting, as in the Avrojlis canina . The 
ftriking alteiation in the appearance of the Grals from this circumftance has often been the caufe of multiplying 
lpecies unnecellarily. The fpecimens of the two Bents and of the Darnel which appear in this coIledKon will 
not prove examples of the cxiftence of the awn in thefe Graffes. It is not however doubted but that in particular 
htuations the awn may be prefent to them. r 
Mr. Lightfoot is of opinion that it would perhaps be no error to confider the Marfa Bent as only a variety of 
the Stolonijera or Running Bent. J J 
Dr. Withering has made thefe two, as well as the capillaris , diftindt fpecies. 
Mr. Hudson has fcwcely noticed the alba, and has ranked all three, and indeed all the Engli/h Bents fexcept 
one) in which the awn is deficient, as varieties under the fpecific term polymorpha. V ^ 
The min, ru»»mg or Marjb Bent abounds chiefly in low meadows, near rivers, and in moift ditches. As it 
flowers late m the lesion, and there .» not for that reafon fo great a probability of the feed's ripening, nature has 
Wlk 0f T P.™ W"" g b r another method, namely, by runner, in the manned of Straw- 
1 C : m ? 1 at 0 ’ Thefe rw/ifffrryi fome places extend for feveral yards, and are in low meadows very 
plentiful in the autumn. The Graziers in fome parts of the weft of England are not very partial to this pro- 
duttion, to which they give the appellation of fog, * 7 P P 
It flowers the latter end of July. 
The Tips are white with a purple tinge. 
