ENGLAND. 



711 



Statistics, qualified for the support of graminivorous quadrupeds ; 



S """"V^*' and we find, accordingly, that our ancient forests abound- 

 ed in stags and roe-deer, as our cleared and cultivated 

 lands do now with sheep and cattle. 



The flora of England, though it cannot boast the most 

 splendid and exquisite of vegetable productions, yet con- 

 tains as great a variety of genera and species as any 

 other country of equal extent. The investigation of in- 

 digenous plants is continually carrying on here with in- 

 creasing ardour, and every year brings new accessions to 

 our crowded ranks of native vegetables. 



The first for importance and variety is the family of 



>nstes. grasses. Almost every part of the country that is not 

 under tillage, is principally covered with grass. Under 

 almost all the differences of soil and situation, we find 

 the chief covering of the richest, as well as of the most 

 barren tracts, made up, for the most part, of these 

 plants. To these we are indebted for the luxuriant ver- 

 dure of our pastures for the close velvet carpeting of 

 our downs and sheep walks and the more scanty clo- 

 thing of our mountainous districts. Twenty-seven ge- 

 nera, and 110 species of grass, are natives of our island, 

 most of them of common occurrence in situations where 

 they are found at all. None of them have been proved 

 to be poisonous, either to man or beast ; on the contrary, 

 whether fresh or dried, they furnish a grateful food to 

 all onr domestic cattle. The most important grasses in 

 meadows and pastures, are the meadow foxtail grass ; 

 two or three species of hair-grass and meadow grass ; the 

 cocks-foot fuscue, and oat grass. Other species are na- 

 tives of marshes and wet places : These are generally the 

 largest and most luxuriant ; and if in quality they be 

 somewhat inferior to the preceding, yet the defect is 

 probably more than compensated by the quantity of 

 herbage which they supply. Light sandy soils, espe- 

 cially the flat parts of the southern and eastern coasts, 

 abound in grasses that are hardly to be met with in the 

 interior of the island : the herbage of these affords a 

 coarse and scanty pasture, and they are eminently dis- 

 tinguished from their kindred species by the length and 

 strength of their creeping roots. Upon the sides and 

 summits of our mountains are found a few grasses that 

 do not appear elsewhere, mixed with some others of 

 more general occurrence. As, however, in these bleak 

 and elevated situations, covered with snow for some 

 months in the year, and shrouded with clouds for the 

 principal part of the remainder, it would be scarcely pos- 

 sible for these plants to bring their seeds to maturity, 

 we observe in them a wise and striking deviation from 

 the common course of nature: like the rest of their tribe, 

 they throw up flowering stems, and bear blossoms ; but 

 these are succeeded, not by seeds, but by bulbs, which 

 in a short time vegetate, and are already furnished with 

 a leaf and roots before they fall to the ground. All the 

 viviparous grasses, except one, (Feslitca vivipara,) if 

 transplanted to a lower and warmer situation, accommo- 

 date themselves to their new climate, and produce seeds. 

 Besides these, there are others of a more hardy consti- 

 tution, which appeal' to be the true natives of the moun- 

 tains, and multiply their species by seed in the usual way. 

 !y allied to the grasses, in general habit, are a number 

 of species, natives of moors, bogs, and pools. These serve 

 to give consistency to the deep mud, or peat, in which 

 they are rooted, and, when young, afford a coarse pas- 

 ture to sheen and cattle. Several of them are used for 

 matting, thatching, and for chair bottoms. The stately 

 Typlui (Bull-rush) is one of the principal ornaments of 



our fens and neglected pools ; and the several species of Statistics. 

 cotton grass enliven many a dreary mile of bog, by T* 1 

 their gracefully pendent tufts of snowy white. 



The leguminous, or papilionaceous plants, so called Leguml- 

 from their winged blossoms, form a very important di- nous plant, 

 vision in English botany. The herbage of all when 

 fresh, and of many when dry, is a most grateful food to 

 horses, cattle, and sheep ; and several of them, as the 

 clovers and vetches, are largely cultivated for this pur- 

 pose. Many of this class are climbers, and adorn our 

 thickets and hedges with elegant festoons of blossoms and 

 foliage. Almost all the English papilionaceous plants 

 flourish best in light calcareous soils, either rocky or 

 sandy ; and some of them, as the lady's finger and sain- 

 foin, may be reckoned certain indications of chalk or 

 limestone. 



The umbelliferous plants form another large class in Cmbellife- 

 the natural arrangement of English vegetables, consisting rous. 

 of about 60 species. The roots and seeds of those kinds 

 which grow on dry light soils, are frequently aromatic; 

 those that are natives of marshes and moist meadows, 

 are, for the most part, in a greater or less degree, poison- 

 ous. The whole class, indeed, is a suspicious one, and, 

 excepting the fennel and celery, not a single native 

 species is cultivated for the food of man or beast. 



Perhaps the most splendid of all the herbaceous plants, Bulbous 

 are the bulbous rooted, which, from their general resem- rooted, 

 blance to the lily, have obtained the name of liliaceous ; 

 most of these, however, are natives of warmer climates. 

 The sandy deserts about the Cape of Good Hope, and 

 the shores of the Indian Ocean, produce the most beau- 

 tiful species. Of those which are found wild in England, 

 there are only 28 species; and the greater number of 

 these are of rare occurrence in a truly native state. The 

 spring and autumnal crocus, the snow-drop, the snow- 

 flake, the three kinds of narcissus, including the daffodil, 

 the fritillary, tulip, and lily of the valley, are more fa- 

 miliar to us as garden plants, than as natives of our woods 

 and pastures. The common ones of this class are ram- 

 sons, a species of garlic, meadow saffron, and the beauti- 

 ful and fragrant harebell, or wild hyacinth, one of the 

 principal ornaments of our groves and thickets, even at 

 a time when they are profuse of beauties. 



Our native fruits belong, for the most part, to the class Native 

 of rosaceous plants ; such as the wood strawberry, the fraite. 

 bullace and black thorn, the hawthorn, crab and moun- 

 tain ash, the common bramble or blackberry, the rasp- 

 berry, stone-bramble and cloudberry. The cherry, the 

 medlar, the service, and pear tree, whose fruit, when 

 wild, is of so little account, and of such value when im- 

 proved by cultivation, belong also to this class. 



One of the largest of the natural classes of English Compound 

 vegetables, is that cf the radiated or compound flowered flowered 

 plants, (including about 120 species). It is rather re- P 1 * 015 - 

 markable, that out of so large a number of plants, many 

 of which are very abundant, and of great size, only a 

 single one, the Tragoponon porifolius, (Falsafy,) should 

 be applied to the sustenance of man, and not even a 

 single one should be cultivated for the use of cattle ; 

 more especially as the Lactuca virosa, (strong-scented 

 lettuce, ) is the only species possessed of deleterious pro- 

 perties. Most of this class have an ungrateful bitter 

 taste, and the succulent ones contain awhile milky juice, 

 of an acrid flavour. Of all our native vegetables, they 

 are the commonest, thriving by neglect, and multiplying 

 by persecution. The farmer and gardener are unceas- 

 ingly employed in their destruction, for they contribute 



