76 HOW TO GROW GOOD GRASSES. 



vation throughout Europe and America. It is one of our commonest 

 native plants, and appears to have become less changed by cultivation 

 than most other plants ; yet there is reason to think that with careful 

 selection a much improved strain may be brought about. In pastures 

 an immense accession of Dutch clover is often seen to follow some 

 kind or another of top-dressing, especially of lime, old mortar, or 

 town rubbish. This is accounted for by the fact that this clover is 

 in reality of universal occurrence ; and its creeping habit of growth, 

 besides seeding, causes it soon to make a rapid increase where its 

 conditions of growth are made suitable. As an agricultural plant its 

 position is in light soils, for which it is usually mixed with other 

 clovers and grasses in varied proportions. 



4 and 5 are often found scattered in meadows, 

 though not usually in any abundance in those of the 

 richer kind ; still, in laying down land for permanent 

 pasture, there can be no objection to a small admix- 

 ture of their seed. 



6, the Purple Vetchling, though local in rich 

 river pastures, is yet a good plant, and might 

 perhaps be advantageously brought out as an 

 addendum to mixtures designed for good lowland 

 positions. 



7, Saintfoin, is a good pasture plant for chalks 

 and limestones ; and in laying down land for perma- 

 nent pastures in such position, should not usually be 

 omitted. It is also a good species to sow on railway 

 banks, not alone for the beauty of its flowers, but for 

 the binding effects of its deeply-diving roots. 



8 and 9, the Burnets, will be found, — the true in 

 rich damp bottoms and on river flats, the false on 

 dry, calcareous soils. They are neither plants that we 

 should care to grow ; but in their wild state in their 

 respective pastures we should, on the other hand, not 

 be inclined to make war against them as weeds. The 

 same opinion, indeed, might be briefly expressed as 



