42 PEKMANENT AND TEMPOEARY PASTURES. 



and lie had never seen it in a wild state in this country. He 

 says : ' This grass, which is nearly alhed to the common Festuca 

 elatioi\ perfects an abundance of seed, though not entirely free 

 from diseased portions, and is therefore not liable to the objection 

 which takes so much from the value of that variety [F. elatior 

 sterilis). It is equally early in the produce of foliage, and 

 flowers earlier than the barren Tall Fescue by eight or ten 

 days. The produce is equally nutritive. For damp soils that 

 cannot conveniently be made sufficiently dry by drains this 

 would be a most valuable plant, either to be cut for soiling or 

 made into hay and reduced to cliaiT as it might be wanted.' 



The sowing of a considerable quantity of elatior {Festuca 

 arundinacea) seed on Mr. Faunce de Laune's new pastures, and 

 the vigorous growth of the plant, especially in times of drought, 

 have induced Mr. Carruthers to strongly recommend the sowdng 

 of this grass on good medium loams and strong soils, and not 

 simply, as has hitherto been advised by Sinclair and others, in 

 moist undrained clays and fens. Whether this grass will be of ])er- 

 manent value under these new conditions, and on soils so different 

 from its natural habitat, is at present an open question. Hitherto 

 it has added considerably to the bulk of the pastures alluded 

 to, is less coarse and reed-like than the elatior of our ditches, 

 and has been almost, if not entirely, free from attacks of ergot. 

 This latter circumstance, however, is probably mainly due to 

 the fact that Mr. Faunce de Laune's pastures are rarely or never 

 laid up for hay, and therefore do not flower, and ergot cannot 

 attack this or any other grass except in the flowering stage. 

 I should advise great caution to be observed in the use of this 

 grass, even in the formation of pastures, except in low-lying situ- 

 ations which are always grazed, and I would exclude it entirely 

 from prescriptions for meadows which are generally cut for 

 hay, wdiatever their situation, not only because of the tendency 

 of the grass to become ergoted, but because of the extreme 

 coarseness of the hay produced. 



Mr. J. Gilbert Baker, of the Eoyal Herbarium, Kew, thus 



