The Natural History of British Grasses. 525 



to ten florets ; florets hairy ; aion longer than florets ; spike droop- 

 ing ; leaves bent downwards. — P. 



The habits of these two species are very different — the former 

 preferring poor open heaths and down lands, particularly on lime- 

 stone soils ; the latter growing in hedgerows and beneath woods 

 and shaded places. Agriculturally they are both of them useless ; 

 but the former is well worthy of study for its indication of soil 

 and its condition. 



The B. pinnatum will be found partially intermixed with the 

 grass of most poor upland pastures on limestone, to which small 

 isolated specimens 7t is confined under a constant system of de- 

 pasturing ; but if left wild or only occasionally stocked, it is 

 astonishing how quickly the least bits spread into rounded patches, 

 often of several yards in diameter, which, if cattle be turned into 

 in the summer, they leave wholly untouched, and so it seeds, 

 besides spreading by short rhizomes until the greater part of a 

 pasture may be taken possession of by this useless and distasteful 

 grass. 



The best way to get it under is to fold sheep on a portion at a 

 time, especially through the early spring, feeding them with corn, 

 hay, and a few turnips ; in which case the dead grass is trodden 

 into manure, and the sheep manuring so encourages the growth 

 of the sprinkling of better species, which before were thin and 

 isolated, that the enemy is subdued in an incredibly short space 

 of time ; even one season being enough to destroy the greater 

 portion, and reclaim a pasture that was before going fast to 

 waste. 



The B. pinnatum is also a great pest in hedgerows and on 

 mounds, especially on the Cotteswolds, where it is a constant 

 denizen. It should be carefully forked from the former, and be- 

 fore it has seeded, especially in the young state of the fence, 

 as, from its upright and close method of growth, much injury 

 results to the quick from being smothered, besides the exhausting 

 powers which it possesses. 



The B. sylvaticum is usually refused by all kinds of animals, but, 

 from tlic readiness with which it grows under wood, it affords a 

 tolerable covert for game. 



LOLIu:\r — r/lume of one valve to the lateral (not transverse) 



locustay two to the terminal one; glumels sometimes 



awned. 



Lolium peremw — perennial rye-grass — locusta; of from six to 



eight florets, awnlcss ; leaves mostly upright, of a dark-green 



hue ; of this there arc several varieties. — V. 



Lolium Italicum — locusta of from six to eight awned florets ; 

 leaves broad drooping, of a light green colour. — B. 

 VOL. XVII. 2 X 



