HORTUS GRAMINEUS WOBURNENSIS. 231 



invariably to arrive soon at perfection. When the runners or sto- 

 lones are used instead of seed, the ground is much sooner clothed 

 with the grass : when meant as a crop by itself, the planting of the 

 shoots or stolones appears to be the best mode; but when intended 

 as part of a mixture of other grasses, the seed will be found by ex- 

 perience to be the most proper. 



It flowers about the second and third weeks of July, and the 

 seed is ripe about the second and third weeks of August. 



The grasses and other plants that have now been submitted to 

 the better judgment of the reader, comprehend all the grasses and 

 plants which the Author could ever find in the body of the richest 

 natural pastures, examined every month of the year, and oftener ; 

 some other species, it is true, were sometimes found on particular 

 spots, but could not, from their local situation, be considered as 

 naturally belonging to such: they will be mentioned hereafter. 



To those who may have perused and bestowed some considera- 

 tion on the foregoing details, it may be unnecessary to observe, 

 that the facts and observations there brought forward offer suffi- 

 cient proofs, that it is not from one or two, but from a variety of 

 different species of grasses, that the Agriculturist can hope to 

 form, in the shortest space of time, a sward equal if not superior 

 to that of the richest natural pastures. 



Hastiness in generalizing from a ievi facts only, in things per- 

 taining to the properties and cultivation of plants, has often led to 

 error; it seldom benefits the cause it meant to advance: every 

 one is told this plant, or that mode of cultivation, will best suit 

 his purpose ; most make trial, and from the want of that caution 

 which generalization in the outset destroys, the majority fails : 

 this leads to a difference of opinion on one side ; and on the 

 other, to a contempt of that which, when taken in its limited 

 sense, would have produced every advantage the object was 

 capable of affording. 



The hope of discovering a single grass or mode of cultivation 

 superior to every other for all the purposes of the Agriculturist, 

 under every circumstance, would surely be as rational, and the 

 discovery, when effected, as great, as those of the Philosopher's 

 Stone and the Universal Specific. 



ALOPECURUS arundinaceus. Reed-like Foxtail-grass. 



Specific character: Root powerfully creeping; leaves spear- 

 shaped, spike oblong, thickly crowded ; husks pubescent on 



