^^ NOTES AND COMMENTS. 573 



publish a description of any animal without some figure, either of the 

 animal itself or of its special feature ; and the more so would we urge 

 this point in reference to insects, since Dr. Riley has almost 

 paralysed us with the announcement that there are something like 

 10,000,000 insects altogether. At present, we can only be thankful 

 that they have not all been discovered, and in their discovery we can 

 well afford to "go slow." It is, of course, essential to describe new 

 varieties or " species " when they occur, but surely what is wanted in 

 entomology is more general monographing, and fewer scrappy papers 

 on two or three disconnected forms. 



The Grasses of our Pastures. 

 Tuu recently-puhhshed Annual Journal of the Bath and West and 

 Southevn Counties Society contains an interesting paper with the above 

 title, by Mr. W. Carrutliers, who has in several ways lately con- 

 tributed towards the diffusion of useful knowledge among those 

 practically interested in agriculture, notably by the preparation of 

 the unique set of wheat diagrams noticed in Natural Science for 

 June. In the present paper the author gives the results of a personal 

 examination " of many of the best pastures of England," and also 

 describes and criticises the observations and views of others. 



However rich a natural pasture may be, it will always contain 

 plants of no value as food, which are left untouched by animals when 

 feeding ; hence a natural pasture is always capable of improvement 

 by the removal of such useless plants. Grasses form the principal 

 bulk of all pastures. Our flora boasts 107 kinds of grasses, all of 

 which are not available or of equal value for pastures. In fact, when 

 we have deducted those which only occur high up on Scotch 

 mountains, above the limits of cultivation, those found in cornfields, 

 on dry walls, in sandy dunes, the water-grasses, those which are very 

 rare, and those undesirable in pastures, we have left only 47 species 

 which may be regarded as the pasture-grasses of England, any one or 

 all of which, if eaten by stock, would be nutritious. 



The feeding value of a grass differs greatly at the different stages 

 of its life ; in proof of this a table is given based on data contained 

 in a paper by Mr. David Wilson. Here we have a record of the 

 comparative food-value of twelve grasses at different stages, from 

 which it appears that when in full leaf a grass is worth nearly twice 

 as much as when the seeds are ripe. An amount of cocksfoot, suffi- 

 cient when in the earlier stage for seventy animals, would, when 

 beginning to bloom, only satisfy fifty, after bloom forty-four, and 

 when the seeds are ripe, only thirty-five. The plant in full leaf is 

 vigorously growing and full of plastic food material, which, as the 

 flowering period is reached, becomes worked up into insoluble fibre, 

 or expended to supply energy fof the exhausting process of flowering 

 and subsequent production of fruit. Hence the gradual decrease in 

 feeding-value wuth increasing maturity. 



