470 Festuca ovhia, Yestiica rubra, 



Meadow brome-giass, also, when it is not renewed by pas- 

 turage, becomes mixed with dried leaves ; however, it keeps 

 greener than the i^estilca, and continues to grow high for a much 

 longer time. 



Considered as grasses for laying down lawns, these two plants 

 are very inferior in appearance, and in beauty of verdure, to 

 the rye grass (Solium pratense), and other species used for this 

 purpose. The latter grasses ought, therefore, to be preferred in 

 the sort of soil and climate which suits them ; but if it is intended 

 to lay down a dry and arid soil, whether calcareous or sandy, 

 the i^estuca and the brome-grass have a decided advantage, from 

 their long continuance, and the permanence of their verdure 

 during the droughts. In these two respects they are nearly 

 equal, but in others the Pestuca is inferior to the brome. Its 

 colour, of a deep and dark green, is not pleasing ; and, at the 

 same time, its dry and slippery leaf is uncomfortable to walk on. 

 These lawns, however, though generally of a dark dull green, 

 sometimes present remarkable effects and contrasts ; and I do 

 not doubt, that, with your taste and talent for judging of and 

 reproducing the beautiful effects of nature, you will be able to 

 make a good use of the jFestuca ovina in the laying out of a 

 country residence, or of a park scene. 



As for the brome, its leaf is flat and soft; its colour, though 

 less lively and fresh than that of rye grass, is, however, a very 

 agreeable green ; its shoots extend along the soil like the latter; 

 in fact, it may be said that it is the rye grass of dry soils, and a 

 rye grass that will last twenty years, and perhaps more, if care 

 be taken of it. 



But it is more particularly as useful plants that these two spe- 

 cies are to be considered ; with their help, there is no soil, stone- 

 quarry, or dry sand, which could not be completely laid down 

 in turf, and transformed into a good pasture. Those who have 

 experienced the difficulty of laying down with useful and durable 

 gi'asses soils of this nature will appreciate the value of plants 

 which so eminently possess this property. We have here a 

 fact which strikes us at first sight ; it is, that a single acre 

 of our calcareous land, when covered with these plants, will 

 yield more nourishment to the sheep fed on it, than a very great 

 extent of the same ground left to its natural productions. 



The third species, i^estuca rubra, partakes of the nature of 

 the two others, by its roughness and its long duration. Like 

 the jPestuca ovina, it grows naturally in our calcareous grounds, 

 but it is not vigorous, and the sheep scarcely eat it. On 

 our argillaceous sands, on the contrary, which are very moist 

 in winter and very dry in summer, it is very luxuriant in its 

 growth, and the sheep eat it readily. One of its peculiar features 



