HORTUS GRAMINEUS WOBURNENSIS. 235 



an utter deficiency in the knowledge of the art of assisting Nature 

 n the process of clothing the soil with its natural perennial grasses ; 

 or, that instead of three or four years, in the course of which, 

 by the kind assistance of art, the valuable sward may be renewed, 

 it is better to leave it to the slow unassisted efforts of Nature, to 

 be renewed in eight, ten, or twenty years. 



The superiority of ancient natural pastures over those formed 

 artificially with rye-grass and clover, was before alluded to. It 

 will be found principally to arise from the variety of different 

 habits and properties which exist in a numerous combination 

 of different species of grass. From the beginning of spring, 

 till winter, there is not a month that is not the peculiar season in 

 which one or more grasses attain to the greatest degree of perfec- 

 tion. Some grasses there are that withstand the injurious effects 

 of long-continued dry weather better than others, and vice versa. 

 Hence the comparatively never-failing supply of nutritive herbage 

 obtained from natural pastures, which it is vain to look for in those 

 artificially formed with one or two grasses only. 



Turfs one foot in diameter, from rich ancient pasture land 

 in Endsleigh, Devonshire, belonging to the Duke of Bedford, con- 

 tained the following plants : — 



1. Turf from Hurdwick ground: Anthoxanthum odoratum, Cy- 

 iiosurus cristatus, Lolium perenne RusseUianum, Poa pratensis, Poa 

 trivialis, Dactylis glomerata, Holcus lanatus, Festuca pratensis, 

 Achillea millefolium, Trifolium repeus, Trifolium pratetise perenne, 

 Rumex acetosa, Plavitago lanceolata, Hieracium pilosella, Prunella 

 vulgaris. 



2. Turf one foot diameter, from Endsleigh grounds : Festuca 

 pratensis, Festuca duriuscula, Alopecurus pratensis, Dactylis glome- 

 rata, Bromus mollis, Poa trivialis, Cynosurus cristatus, Festuca 

 rubra, Agrostis stolonifora latifoUa, Lolium perenne RusseUianum, 

 Lolium perenne compositum, Holcus lanatus, Agrostis vulgaris, Tri- 

 folium pratense perenne (red perennial clover), white clover, spear- 

 leaved ribwort ( Plantago lanceolata), yarrow (Achillea millefolium), 

 Hieracium pilosella, Rumex acetosa, Stellaria graminea, BelUs pe- 

 rennis, Anlhoxanthum odoratum. To tliose who are accustomed 

 to consider as necessary one or two species of grass only, as rye- 

 grass and clover, the fact of twenty-two different species of grasses 

 and other plants^ being produced on something less than the space 

 of a square foot of the best fattening pastures, would scarcely ap- 

 pear credible, unless it was thus demonstrated. The pasture of 



