243 



FLORxV OP 

 THE MEADOWS OF THE PROVINCE OF ORAN. 



TO THR f:DITOR OF THE NATURALIST. 



Sir, 



My attention has been drawn to a series of papers on the 

 ^'Natural Meadows of the Province of Oran/' in Algeria, two of which have 

 been already published in a local newspaper, called "L'Echo d'Oran." They 

 are from the pen of Mr. Giles Munby, the distinguished author of the "Flore 

 De L'Algerie/' a naturalist of whom this city may be justly proud. These 

 papers seem so full of important and interesting matter to the scientific 

 agriculturist, as affording a comparison between the meadows of that country 

 and our own, and at the same time are so valuable as a contribution to 

 Botanical Geography, that I have made a translation of them, and trust you 

 will consider them as equally likely to please the readers of your Journal. 

 I have only to add that the genera, examples of which occur native in this 

 country are in the translation distinguished by a larger type, and the British 

 species by italics: — no such distinction of course occurs in the French original. 



Oswald A. Moore. 



York, September VM., 1802. 



The plants which compose the natural meadows of the province of Oran 

 belong almost exclusively to three great families of the vegetable kingdom, 

 that is to say, to the Grasses, Leguminous, and Composite Plants. 



We shall consider at first the species of the family of Grasses, and according 

 to alphabetical order: — 



AGROSTIS. — This genus, which is so common in all the meadows of the 

 north of Europe, does not show itself in the province of Oran, excepting in 

 species interesting rather to the botanist than the agriculturist, such as A. 

 ELEGANS, A. vERTiciLLATA, and A. minima. The A. vulgaris is found in the 

 natural moist meadows of the Milidja, at Algiers. It is a variety of the species 

 which has been cultivated in England under the name of Fiorin Grass, and 

 which has been extolled as possessing very nutritive qualities. 



AIRA. — Of this genus we have at Oran only two species, which are of no 

 use in agriculture, namely, the A. minuta and A. caryophyllea. 



ALOPECURUS. — I have not yet found in the province of Oran any species 

 of this genus; the A. hulbosus is by no means rare in the moist meadows of 

 the Milidja, at Algiers. 



ARUNDO. — A great kind of Grass, which grows on the hills, called Dis 

 by the Arabs. 



ANTHOXANTHUM. — One species of this Grass, sweet-scented Vernal 

 Grass, (the A. odoratum,,) which in Europe gives the agreeable scent to new- 

 made hay, is found very commonly in the meadows at Algiers, but in the 

 province of Oran there is only one sfecies of any utility — the A. ovatum. 



AVENA.— This genus, which comprises the different species of Oat, is 



