154 HORTUS GHAMINEUS \V O BU UN E N S 1 S. 



Hastiness in generalizing from a few facts only, in things 

 pertaining 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 culti- 

 vation, 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 aflbrding. 



The hope of discovering a single grass or mode of cultiva- 

 tion 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 the back, and largely ciliate on the 

 edges. 



Obs. — The florets are larger and more linear, or of a more 

 equal breadth throughout than those of alopecuriis 

 pratensis ; awns sometimes altogether wanting ; culm 

 very tall in comparison to that of the common fox-tail ; 

 but the reed-like leaves of the a. arundinaceus distinguish 

 it at first sight from the a. pratensis. I received this 

 species, and the next following one, from my friend 

 Mr. Taunton. Poiret mentions that it is cultivated in 

 the Paris gardens, but its native place of growth is 

 unknown. 



The substance of the culms and leaves of this srrass is 

 coarser than that of the alopecurus pratensis ; and the root 

 is so powerfully creeping, as to render its introduction into 

 arable land a matter of great caution. The produce and 

 nutritive powers are very considerable ; it is an early grass, 

 producing culms at an early period of the spring, and con- 

 tinuing to vegetate vigorously through the summer and 



