24 WILD PLANTS, 



particularly adapted for imbibing certain substances 

 from the earth, which may be rejected or not 

 sought after by the fibrous or penetrating roots of 

 another. Festuca sylvatica abounds in every soil 

 without an apparent predilection for any one : F. 

 uniglumis, only where it can imbibe marine salt : 

 F. pinnata, is found vegetating upon calcareous 

 soils alone, and I have known it appear immediately 

 as the limestone inclined to the surface, as if all 

 other soils were deficient in the requisite nutri- 

 ment. Many of the maiden-hairs and ferns, pelli- 

 tory, cotyledon, &c., are attached in the crevices 

 of old walls, seeking as it were for the calcareous 

 nitrate found there, this saltpetre appearing essen- 

 tial to their vigour and health. The predominat- 

 ing plants in some corn-fields is the red poppy, 

 cherlock (sinapis arvensis), mustard (sin. nigra.) 9 

 wild oat, corn-flower (cy anus) ; but in some ad- 

 joining parish we shall only sparingly find them. 

 With us, in our cold clay-lands we find the slender 

 foxtail grass (alopecurus agr.) abounding like a 

 cultivated plant ; when growing in clover, or the 

 ray-grass, the whole are cut together, and though 

 not a desirable addition, is not essentially injurious; 

 but vegetating in the corn, it is a very pernicious 

 weed, drawing nutriment from the crop, and over- 

 powering it by its more early growth, at times so 

 impoverishing the barley or the oats, as to render 

 them comparatively of little value. The upright 

 brome grass (bromus erectus) is a pest in our grass 

 lands, giving the semblance of a crop in a most 



