TRIANDRIA DIGYNIA,
PHA L A R I S .
Gens. Chjb. Calyx with two equal valves, keeled, enclosing a single floret Gen. Plant.
PHALARIS CANARIENSIS. {%c. Kant
Canary-grass~
Spec. Char- Spike ovate} calyx-valves smooth y floret-valves four,* the larger valves hairy, jjj
We have delineated this plant, and given it a station amidst the British natives, in conformity with
several of our preceding botanists, but we have no reason to consider it as indigenous to our island,
and although w e occasionally find it scattered on the sides of roads, on ash heaps, and at the edges of
manure, yet all its stations point it out as originating from the sweepings'of the bird-cage, or as a stray
from the aviary: its seed is the favourite food o f that pretty songster imported from the Tirol, and
Canary Islands, and has been cultivated in England for that purpose for perhaps above three hundred
years, from the days of our good queen Elizabeth.-— The tyranny of the bigotted Philip of Spain, and
the persecutions of his evil agent the duke of Alva, expelled from their native country many of the
industrious inhabitants of: the Low-lands, who flying from their merciless enemy, sought an asylum
under the government o f these kingdoms, introducing with them the arts o f horticulture, and the
esculent vegetables at that day unknown in England, and by them was first cultivated Phalaris Cana-
riensis: the county of Kent was chosen by the Netherlanders as the most favourable soil for their
employment, nor do we know that the Canary-grass has been attempted to be grown but in that
county where first introduced by the Low-land, emigrants.------Canary-grass seems perfectly naturalized
in the chilling airs o f this climate, and as the soil it vegetates in is in general tolerably rich, its
straw acquires altitude, and its foliage luxuriance. Our internal consumption of the seed o f this plant
is- so great, that it is cultivated in considerable quantities; and if the character of Britain would be
augmented by being considered as a musical nation, our domestication o f the little warblers in such
numbers as to require a regular cultivation of their food, gives us some claim to that epithet, or at least
to be considered as lovers of. innocent harmony.
A, a Floret...
B, a Floret with the Calyx expanded, and the Corolla rendered visible.
C, the Corolla.
• Perhaps if instead of-considering the corolla as having four valves, we were to denominate the two smaller ones
Nectaries, we might express ourselves with more propriety.