CLASS III. ORDEKII.] ALOPECURUS. 75 



a grass fitted for the alternate husbandry. It is of early growth, very 

 productive, of good quality, and highly nutritive, grateful to most cat- 

 tie, and may be mown with advantage twice a year. Few, if any, of 

 our native grasses possess more valuable properties than this : it is not 

 only remarkable for its early growth, but equally so for its lateness. 

 In certain situations, it may not unfrequently be observed in a vigorous 

 state of growth from the end of March till very late in the autumn. In 

 those pastures where it forms any considerable portion of the herbage, 

 the treatment pursued is often at variance with those means best calcu- 

 lated to secure the full amount of advantage which, with judicious 

 management, its many excellent properties are calculated to supply. 

 In such pastures, the most prevailing error is in allowing it to become 

 too gross before the cattle are turned in to eat it down ; in consequence 

 of which, it may be observed, that a large portion of the pasture is left 

 untouched by the cattle until autumn or winter, by which time this and 

 some other species of rapid growth will have extended themselves, and 

 usurped the place of the less luxuriant kinds, thereby destroying one 

 of the most essential qualities which pasture land ought to possess 

 that of an equal and extensive mixture of grasses. 



A similar error is often committed in the management of fields de- 

 voted to the cultivation of hay, by delaying the mowing season long 

 after this and some other of the earlier and most nutritious kinds have 

 attained maturity, and their most valuable properties passed into a state 

 of decay. By such delay, the weight of the crop, it is true, may be 

 somewhat increased ; but it will always be found that this additional 

 weight in the hay will be obtained by a proportional deterioration both 

 in its quality and nutritious properties, as well as a loss in the produce 

 of the after math. 



2. A. alpi'nus, Sm. (Fig. 93.) Alpine Foxtail-grass. Stem ascend- 

 ing, panicle spiked, ovate, glumes of two ovate, abruptly acute, 

 hairy valves, united at the base, awn of the glumella scarcely pro- 

 truding. 



English Botany, t. 1126. English Flora, vol. i. p. 81. Lindley 

 Synopsis, p. 299. Hooker, British Flora, vol. i. p. 33. 



Root somewhat creeping, fibres long and branched. Stem from 

 twelve to eighteen inches high, procumbent at the base, smooth, leafy, 

 striated. Lower leaves longer than the sheaths, linear, striated, smooth, 

 upper one much shorter than the inflated sheath. Ligula short, obtuse. 

 Inflorescence spiked, short, ovate, dense, soft, downy. Glumes united 

 at the base, abruptly pointed, ribs three, a dark purplish green, ciliated, 

 hairs fine, silky. Glumella ovate acute, slightly hairy, keel narrow, 

 ribs two on each side, green. Awn arising from near the base, about 

 the same length, rough. Styles combined. Stigmas protruding, fea- 

 thery. 



Habitat. Very rare. " Discovered by Mr. R. Brown on Loch na 

 Garr, in Aberdeenshire ; White Water, and other streams of Clove 



