316 The Natural History of Selborne 



useful. You shall see a man readily ascertain every herb of 

 the field, yet hardly know wheat from barley, or at least one 

 sort of wheat or barley from another. 



But of all sorts of vegetation the grasses seem to be most 

 neglected ; neither the farmer nor the grazier seem to dis- 

 tinguish the annual from the perennial, the hardy from the 

 tender, nor the succulent and nutritive from the dry and 

 juiceless. 



The study of grasses would be of great consequence to a 

 northerly, and grazing kingdom. The botanist that could 

 improve the sward of the district where he lived would be an 

 useful member of society : to raise a thick turf on a naked 

 soil would be worth volumes of systematic knowledge ; and 

 he would be the best commonwealth's man that could 

 occasion the growth of " two blades of grass where one 

 alone was seen before." 



I am, &c. 



