for two, three, or seven years. It is sown in Italy, and especially in Lombardy, and also in France and Germany, along with clover, for the same purposes as in England; and, as Von Thaer has remarked, though some have tried other species, both in these countries and in England, they have in the end returned to the rye-grass. When intended as a pasture grass, if stocked hard, and when for hay, if mown early, the objections to it are removed. (Code of Agriculture.)

The Floating Fescue-grass (Festuca fluitans, Pl. 5, ) is found in England in ditches, ponds, and swamps, and in most parts of the country, especially in Cambridgeshire, where it is said to give the peculiar flavour to Cottenham and Cheddar cheese.

The common Ray or Rye-grass (Lolium perenne), is said to be the first of the grasses cultivated in England, and even in Europe. According to Donaldson, the latest English writer upon grasses, it is still regarded as not far removed from being first in point of general utility. One of the species of Lolium, the temulentum, or bearded annual darnel, is sometimes mistaken for what is known in the United States by the names of Cheat or Chess, so often found among wheat and barley crops. See DARNEL. The varieties of the Lolium perenne are very numerous, and several improvements have been effected in England on the original plant, known under the names of Pacey's, Stickney's, and Russell's Ray-grasses, Pacey's and Russell's being considered the best. For more than a century and a half this grass has con- It is greedily devoured by all kinds of stock, tinued in high repute in England, both for the not excepting hogs and ducks, and geese purpose of a single crop and for pastures, and eagerly devour the seeds, which are small, now constitutes a part of all kinds of the im- but very sweet and nourishing. They are colproved mixtures. The modern objection to lected in many parts of Germany and Poland ray-grass is the shooting up to stems and under the name of manna-seeds (schwaden), culms, and the want of foliage, together with and are esteemed a delicacy in soups and a deficiency of aftermath. "But," says Do- gruels. When ground to meal, they make naldson, "the first only happens in upland bread very little inferior to that from wheat. situations and on poor soils, where any other | Fish feed upon the seeds, and trout are said to plant would have the same tendency; for on thrive greatly in streams where this grass good soils ray-grass grows large, leafy, and grows abundantly. Curtis justly remarks, that succulent, and in many cases it affords as the flote fescue will not flourish except in land good lattermath as most others, and forms, that is constantly under water, or converted when sown with clover, a very useful sward into a bog or swamp. (Loudon's Ency. of Agr.) for several years. No plant is liable to greater The Water Meadow-grass (Poa aquatica, Pl. 5, variation from soil and situation, and hence m), is one of the largest of English grasses. may have arisen the many discordant opinions It is found chiefly in marshes, but will grow of its value; and from being sown singly with on strong clays, and yield, as the Woburn exclovers it has been more exposed to observa-periments prove, a prodigious produce. In the tion than any other grasses which are usually sown in mixtures, and seldom tried singly for one crop or for a longer duration. It has accordingly been much subjected to fancies and conjectures, which are about equally divided for and against the use of it, the former being yet the most numerous. Coarseness is inferred from the benty stalks standing uncropped; these might be kept under by early and close grazing, and other grasses are equally objectionable on that point; and it produces stems during the whole season, while some grasses produce only one, and it is not yet known if the leaves or stalks of plants contain most nu-ing. In this respect it is a formidable plant, triment. So far as our knowledge extends, after all the investigations and best experience upon the subject, ray-grass forms the plant of all others the best suited for general purposes. For a crop of hay along with clovers, no other grass will afford an equal quantity and quality of produce on all the different variety of soils on which they are sown. It yields very readily, and with much less comparative trouble, an abundance of sound, healthy seed, and of certain growth; it rises early in the spring, and is much relished by all kinds of stock; the hay is good and fetches a high price, and it is used with much advantage when sown in autumn along with other plants as spring feed for sheep." (Donaldson, on Manures, Grasses, &c.)

After all the experiments that have been made on the other grasses, none, says Loudon, have been found to equal the perennial ryegrass for a course of mowing and pasturing

fens of Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, &c., immense tracts, that used to be overflowed and to produce useless aquatic plants, and which, though drained by mills, still retain much moisture, are covered with this grass, which not only affords rich pasturage in summer, but forms the chief part of the winter fodder. It has a powerfully creeping root, and bears frequent mowing well, sometimes being cut three times in one season. It grows not only in very moist ground, but in the water itself, and with cat-tail, bur-weed, &c., soon fills up ditches, and occasions them to require frequent cleans

even in slow rivers. In the Isle of Ely they cleanse these by an instrument called a bear, which is an iron roller, with a number of pieces of iron, like small spades, fixed to it. This is drawn up and down the river by horses walking along the banks, and tears up the plants by the roots, which float and are carried down the stream.

The fiorin grass (Agrostis stolonifera, Pl. 5, n). is in England a very common grass, both in wet and dry, rich and poor situations. Few plants, however, appear to be more under the influence of local circumstances than this grass. On dry soils it is worthless, but on rich and moist soils, if we may attach confidence to the accounts given of its produce in Ireland, it is the most valuable of all herbage plants. (See AGROSTIS.) Though fiorin will, in England and Ireland, ripen its seeds on a dry soil, and these seeds being very small, a few pounds

would suffice for an acre, yet it is generally as wheat is to man. It hardly requires to be propagated by stolones, or root-shoots. The sown, as it springs up everywhere of itself. ground being previously prepared by plough- However, it may not be amiss to sow a few ing, harrowing, and laying into ridges, the pounds of it per acre, whenever perpetual passhoots are deposited, touching each other at the ture (not hay) is the object. ends, in drill rows an inch or two deep and about 6 or 9 inches apart. In 6 months, if the planting be performed early in spring, the whole surface will be covered with thick verdure, affording, by autumn, a heavy crop.

The fine bent (Agrostis vulgaris, see Pl. 6, d), is one of the most common grasses, and one of the earliest. See AGROSTIS VULGARIS.

The narrow-leaved meadou-grass (Poa angusti folia, see Pl. 6, e), though flowers late, is reWith regard to the last described grasses, markable for the early growth of its leaves, Mr. Loudon gives it as his opinion, that neither which, according to the Woburn experiments, fiorin, timothy, or floating fescue, is ever likely attain to the length of more than 12 inches to be cultivated in Britain, though, he observes, before the middle of April, and are soft and the two latter may succeed well on the bogs succulent; in May, however, when the flowerand moist, rich soils of Ireland, where, to second stalks make their appearance, it is subject to the influence of the soil, there is a moist warm the disease termed rust, which affects the whole climate. In regard to the merits of timothy, plant, in consequence of which the produce of the reports of several high authorities, one of the crop is deficient at the time the seeds are which (Donaldson) we have just quoted, seem ripe. (See PoA ANGUSTIFOLIA.) This grass is to lead to a very different conclusion. The evidently most valuable for permanent pasobservation may be strictly applicable to fiorin ture, for which, in consequence of its superior, and floating fescue, both in England and Ame-rapid, and early growth, and the disease beginrica, although there may be some localities in the United States into which one or other of these may be advantageously introduced.

PASTURE GRASSES.-In regard to grasses for pasturage, the following selection is given by Loudon, as best adapted to three main purposes; namely:

ning at the straws, nature seems to have designed it. The grasses which approach nearest to this in respect to early produce of leaves, are, the fertile meadow-grass, rough cock's-foot, timothy, meadow foxtail, avena elatior, and bromus littoreus, all grasses of a coarser kind.

Late Pasture Grasses. Of these the principal For early pasture on all soils, the sweet ver- are timothy, and the various kinds of bent or nal grass (Anthoxanthum odoratum), the sweet-agrostis. The grasses which are propagated scented soft-grass (Holcus odoratus), the downy oat-grass (Avena pubescens), and the annual meadow-grass (Poa annua).

For late pasture on all soils, the different species of Agrostis and Phleum.

For pasture on poor or secondary soils, the crested dog's-tail (Cynosurus cristatus), hard and sheep's fescue (F. duriuscula and ovina), Poa compressa, cristata, and angustifolia.

The grasses which, according to Loudon, afford most nutritive matter, in early spring, are the foxtail grass and the vernal grass.

The sweet-scented vernal grass (see Pl. 6, a), is common in almost all English pastures, and is that which gives the fragrance to natural or meadow hay. It is chiefly valuable as an early grass; for, though it is eaten by stock, it does not appear to be much relished by them. It is said to thrive best in lands that are deep and moist, and even in peat bogs. Donaldson places it in the lower order of the better grasses. See ANTHOXANTHUM ODORATUM.

The downy oat-grass (see Pl. 6, b), according to the Woburn experiments, possesses several good qualities which recommend it to particular notice, as being hardy, early, and more productive than many others which affect similar soils and situations.

The annual meadow-grass (Poa annua, Pl. 6, c), is the most common of all grasses, being the first herbage with which nature covers the earth. The root is annual, and it is almost the only grass that will grow in towns, or near works where the smoke of coal abounds. Though an annual grass, it is found in most meadows and pastures perpetually flowering, and affording an early sweet herbage, relished by an stock, and of as great importance to birds

by stolones, like fiorin, and others of the same species, supply pasture throughout the year, the concrete sap laid up in the joints of their roots, rendering them good food even in winter.

Of Pasture grasses for inferior soils, one of the most durable is the dog's-tail grass (Cynosurus eristatus, see Pl. 6, ƒ), in England, a very common grass on dry, clayey or firm surfaces. In the United States it is either little known, or slightly estimated. The foliage is small and rather late in the spring. The wiry stems are refused by cattle, and become very unsightly, and from the smallness of produce, and the dense tufts formed at the roots, it is unfit for alternate husbandry. But for pastures, and for all permanent purposes, if the land be of a dry and hard nature, and inferior in quality, and if sheep are to be fed upon it, this grass must form, according to Donaldson, a principal part of the mixture of seeds sown for that purpose. It is not at all adapted to low swampy situations, but on poor, dry clays, and gravelly soils, it often covers the ground and affords a bite where every other grass had nearly failed.

The hard fescue grass (Festuca duriuscula, see Pl. 6, g), is one of the best of the dwarf sorts of grasses, grateful to all kinds of cattle. It is, in England, present in most good meadows and pastures, and with the sheep's-fescue is the best for lawns.

The smooth fescue (F. glabra, see Pl. 6 h), and long-awned sheep's-fescue (F. hordeiformis, Pl. 6, i), greatly resemble the hard fescue, and may be considered equally desirable as pasture and lawn grasses.

The sheep's fescue (F. ovina, Pl. 6, k), is one of the principal pasture grasses for inferior