HORTUS GRAMINEUS \yOBURNENSIS. 217 



early and late growth, in an eminent degree.* — These varieties of 

 rye-grass are a valuable acquisition to the Farmer ; and more par- 

 ticularly, should those characters which now render them so valuable 

 prove permanent after experiencing the various trying effects of dif- 

 ferent changes of soil and situation under long cultivation. The habit 

 of the Whitworth's rye-grass indicates an origin from higher situ- 

 ated though rich land ; while the habits of the Russell and Stickney 

 rye-grasses indicate an origin from a less elevated though equally 

 rich land. It is more than probable that, should attention be paid 

 to have the seeds of those grasses always supplied from their respec- 

 tive original soils, or from analogous soils, that the valuable proper- 

 ties they now possess may be perpetuated. Besides those varieties, 

 there have been cultivated and submitted to careful experiment in 

 the grass-garden at Woburn Abbey, fifteen apparently distinct 

 varieties. The greater number of these have not stood the test of 

 reproduction from seed, but have merged into one or other of 

 the above-mentioned varieties. Mr. Neill, of Mansfield, commu- 

 nicated six varieties of rye-grass, one of which proved identical 

 with Stickney's grass, and another proved to be the same with the 

 Russell rye-grass. Mr. Neill had first collected the seeds of these 

 from rich pastures, and by afterwards cultivating them in his gar- 

 den obtained seed sufficient for farm practice. 



Rye-grass, when not more than three years old, flowers in the 

 second week of June, and ripens the seed in about twenty-five 

 days after : as the plants become older they flower much later, 

 sometimes so late as the beginning of August. 



* For the following statements of the produce of the Whitworth rye-grass 

 I am indebted to Mr. G. Whitworth. " About 80 acres of rather thin poor 

 wold-\m\d incumbent on chalk, was sown with the Whitworth rye-grass and 

 clover, the former predominant. In 1819, the first season of grass, the land kept 

 some ewes and lambs until the 1st of May, when it was shut up for mowing. The 

 produce of hay was 54 good waggon-loads, but 30 acres were allowed to stand for 

 seed, the produce of seed from two to three quarters per acre. The pasture was 

 laid in for about four weeks, then stocked with 500 lambs, which it kept for seven 

 weeks, and afterwards kept 160 lambs, with the help of a little hay given occasion- 

 ally through the winter, and until the beginning of April, when 300 ewes and lambs 

 were put in and did well through the spring months. 



To the serious objections to rye-grass as a precursor to wheat, Mr. Whitworth 

 says that his variety of rye-grass is so tenacious of life, that two or even three 

 pioughings are necessary to overcome the grass, otherwise the roots of the grass 

 will take up the nourishuicnt of the soil, to the great injury of the wheat-crop. 



