396 ON THE BOTANY OF [ApHl, 



closely cropped. These pastures about Clent might be improved 

 by grubbing up the Furze, the only plant which covers any con- 

 siderable part of the surface; for the Foxglove is not able to 

 maintain its place in the thick grassy sward. A very little cost 

 incurred in taking up the Furze-roots and in pulling up the 

 young Furze-plants that will spring up for some time after the 

 present crop of Furze is destroyed, and in a general superin- 

 tendence of the pasture for a few years, would be well repaid. 

 After a short time, say half-a-dozen years, the Furze might be 

 entirely eradicated, and the Sheep's Fescue, a valuable pasture 

 plant, would take its place. The Furze here is of little or no 

 value for fuel, and if it were desirable to cultivate a little of it 

 for feeding horses or cattle, it might be kept in a separate por- 

 tion or in a more worthless part of the hills. These hills are 

 common pasture land. Every owner, and, of course, every oc- 

 cupier, has the privilege of grazing one or two sheep for every 

 acre of land he owns or rents. Hence it is not very probable 

 that our scheme for improving the pastures of these kills will be 

 adopted. " What is everybody's business or interest is nobody's 

 business or interest." 



Another grass, very durable for a lawn, is one of the Hair-grasses 

 [Atraflewuosa) , but it is worthless as a pasture grass, for it would 

 not retain its hold on the soil where other suitable grasses will 

 grow. 



Alchemilla vulgaris, Our Lady's Mantle, occurs only occa- 

 sionally on the Clent Hills, but on the Lickeys, four or five miles 

 from Clent, this interesting plant is very common. On the latter 

 hills, although only recently enclosed and partially cultivated, 

 this plant occurs very abundantly. It may be readily distin- 

 guished by its beautiful yellowish-green, lobed, and regularly ser- 

 rated (snipped) leaves, as well as by its small, inconspicuous, 

 greenish flowers. It belongs to the Natural Order Rosacece, the 

 Hose family, to which it bears only a very remote resemblance, 

 whether we regard the aspect of tlie plant, its vegetable structure, 

 or its fructification. It forms, however, a section of this large 

 Order. 



Where the rock crops out, and only there, a few plants of the 

 Hawk weed genus [Hieracium) grow. These represent a great 

 section of the great Order Composite, the Compound family. One 

 of the Hawkweeds is a popular garden flower, and it may serve 



