HOIITUS GRAMINEUS WO B U KN ENSIS, 151 



growth be impartially taken into the account, when com- 

 pared with the produce and nutritive powers of" other 

 grasses. 



This grass, when cultivated by itself, cannot be profitably 

 depastured, on account, principally, of its peculiar manner 

 of growth, which has been compared to that of strawberries. 

 It sends out runners or stolones, which strike root at the 

 joints; the feet of cattle mixing part of the soil with these, 

 render the most valuable part of the plant unfit for food. 

 In its combined state in ancient pastures this objection is 

 lost, as the root-leaves and consolidated turf of the various 

 grasses prevent completely such an effect from the feet of 

 the cattle, which will be evident on a few moments' examina- 

 tion of a close-eaten turf of such pastures as now described. 

 In this state it is much less productive than when cultivated 

 singly, as the fibrous roots of the stolones derive their only 

 nourishment from the moisture secreted among the root- 

 leaves of the other grasses. 



The chief advantage of this grass in permanent pasture is 

 its late growth. It remains in a degree inactive till other 

 grasses have attained to perfection, and when their produc- 

 tive powers become exhausted, those of florin and its 

 varieties begin ; and it will be found, on inspection, that the 

 latest mouthful of herbage, and sometimes the earliest in 

 those pastures, is principally afforded by this grass. 



There has been much prejudice existing against the 

 different species of agrostis in general ; but, let the pro- 

 prietor of a rich ancient pasture divest a part of it of this 

 grass entirely, and the value of the plant will be demon- 

 strated in the comparative loss of late and early herbage. 

 In these pastures, late in the autumn, I have observed the 

 stolones extend to a considerable length, and left untouched 

 by cattle: in the spring, however, they were generally eaten, 

 and the protection they had afforded to the under grasses 

 was evident in the superior early growth of the herbage, 

 where the stolones had most extended ; after this, the 

 creeping bent was hardly to be recognized till the other 

 grasses had again exhausted themselves, towards the end of 



