IX CUTTING DOWN PLANTATIONS. 291 



(1) Eye grdiss (Lolium perenne) is a hardy fibrous-rooted grass, 

 and although not permanent, yet we have found it to thrive 

 and grow freely under the shade of trees, and forms a green 

 sward while it lasts, and until such time as the more permanent 

 grasses are developed, 



(2) Smooth-stalked meadow grass {Foa pratensis) is a hardy 

 creeping-rooted grass, and well adapted for all dry light soils 

 at a high elevation. It is not apt to get burned up by the heat 

 of summer, and thrives well among trees. 



(3) Hard fescue (Festiica duriuscula) , this grass thrives on a 

 great variety of soils and situations, but is most at home on dry 

 light land thoroughly drained. It is early, and forms a green 

 nutritious sward during winter, and is not apt to get burnt up 

 in summer. 



(4) Sheep's fescue (Feshtca ovina) is one of our best natural 

 grasses for permanent pasture on high elevations ; it grows in 

 tufts, and thrives among trees when not too crowded. In 

 autumn, when the trees shed their foilage, the leaves settle down 

 on the surface between the tufts, and when they get decomposed 

 they leave a thin layer of leaf mould around the plants, which 

 has a beneficial effect in promoting its early growth, and render- 

 ing it sweet and succulent. 



(5) Quaking grass {Briza media) is a small perennial indige- 

 nous grass, grows in tufts under trees and elsewhere, and is 

 relished by sheep and cattle. 



(6) Wood-meadow grass {Foa nemoralis), this grass is both 

 strong and hardy, thrives on poor soil under the shade of trees, 

 and gives a good return on places where some of the finer grasses 

 die out. 



(7) Cocksfoot grass {Dactylis rjlomerata) is one of our best and 

 most productive grasses, and thrives on a great variety of soils 

 and situations, providing tliat they are thoroughly dry, and not 

 liable to be Hooded during winter. Its habit of growth is in 

 large conical tufts, the leaves are strong and of a rich bluish 

 green colour, very nutritious, and much relished by cattle, 

 sheep, and deer. It is very suitable to be grown here and there 

 on dry sheltered patches in the deer forest, as it affords the 

 animals a bite in stormy winter weather when the finer grasses 

 are quite bare. It has been said by some, that this grass dies 

 out after being depastured for a period of some six or eight 

 years ; this, however, is not tlie writer's exjjerience, as I have 

 knewn it to grow along with other grasses in plantations uiuler 

 my charge for a period of eighteen years, and never saw any 

 a]»]iearance of its failure. 



(8) Soft grass {J/olciis lanatm), the only merit which this 

 species possesses is its extreme hartliness, as it grows on the 

 poorest of soil, and in places where the finer grasses would perish 



