GRASS LANDS. 23 



eurious appearance ; and I should apprehend, that a 

 truss of our hay from these districts, brought into the 

 London market, or exhibited as a new article of proven- 

 der at a Smithfield cattle-show, would occasion conver- 

 sation and comment. The crop consists almost entirely 

 of the common field scabious (scabiosa succisa), logger- 

 heads (centauria nigra), and the great ox-eye daisy 

 (chrysanthemum lucanthemum.) There is a scattering 

 of bent (agrostis vulgaris), and here and there a speci- 

 men of the better grasses ; but the predominant portion, 

 the staple of the crop, is scabious it is emphatically a 

 promiscuous herbage ; yet on this rubbish do the cattle 

 thrive, and from their milk is produced a cheese greatly 

 esteemed for toasting melting, fat, and good flavored, 

 and, perhaps, inferior to none used for this purpose. 

 The best grasses, indeed, with the exception of the dogs- 

 tail (cynosurus cristatus), do not delight in our soil: 

 the meadow poa (p. pratensis), and the rough stalked 

 poa (p. trivialis), when found, are dwarfish ; and having 

 once occasion for a few specimens of the foxtail (alopc- 

 curus pratensis), I found it a scarce and a local plant : 

 but I am convinced, from much observation, that certain 

 species^of plants, and grasses in particular, are indige- 

 nous to some soils, and that they will vegetate and ul- 

 timately predominate over others that may be introduced. 

 In my own very small practice, a field of exceedingly 

 indifferent herbage was broken up, underwent many 

 plowings, was exposed to the roastings of successive 

 suns, and alternations of the year under various crops; 

 amongst others that of potatoes ; the requisite hackings, 

 hoeings, and diggings of which alone were sufficient to 

 eradicate any original fibrous, rooted herbage. This 

 field was laid down with clean ray grass (lolium perenne), 

 white trefoil, and hop clover, and did tolerably well for 

 one year : and then the original soft-grass, (holcus lana- 

 tus) appeared, overpowered the crop, and repossessed 

 the field; and yet the seed of this holcus could not 

 have lain inert in the soil all this time, as it is a grass 

 that rarely or never perfects its seed, but propagates by 

 its root. The only grass that is purposejy sown tre- 

 foils are not grasses is, I believe, the ray, or rye, no 



