OF SELBORNE. 41 



vour to make himself acquainted with 

 those that are useful. You shall see a man 

 readily ascertain every herb of the field, 

 yet hardly know wheat from barley, or at 

 least one sort of wheat or barley from an- 

 other. 



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 swerd 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. 



