'The Natural History of Selborne 303 



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

 neglected ; neither the farmer nor the grazier seem to distinguish 

 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. 



