Curt.—On Grasses, 849 
sea; and I know the Holcus lanatus will grow on most soils, however stiff 
or wt they may be, as well as the Plantago lanceolata. 
The Cynosurus cristatus will make a permanent pasture for sheep on the 
driest and poorest gravelly downs, and be greatly assisted by the Pentzia 
virgata, or Cape-sheep bush; whilst the Onobrychis sativa will only grow 
profitably for feeding on soils containing a considerable proportion of lime ; 
while upon lands shaded by wood or overgrown by trees several Poas will 
grow well, as will also the Panicum decompositum, Arundinella nepalensis, 
and other kinds, The white clover will grow and ripen its seed where bees 
and other insects can be found. In this colony, the red or Trifolium pratense 
- finds very few insects capable of carrying pollen grain to fertilize it, as the 
humble bee that fertilizes it in England we have not here ; yet sometimes I 
have had a patch of this clover with perfectly fertile seeds, and though I am 
not yet able to say positively what insects are the fertilizing agents, I am 
inclined at present to think it is the ant that does it—but I hope soon to 
learn more of this from test experiments now going on. And again, while 
many of the grasses and clovers will cease to fatten sheep and produce 
disease in them if they eat them when their young growth is first com- 
mencing in spring, PAleum pretense will stop the diarrhoea produced, and will 
continue to nourish and fatten them at a time when other grasses will not 
do as well ; and this being a good autumnal grass, and very nourishing at 
other seasons, it should be more sown than it is at present. So well do the 
Canadian and North American farmers and graziers know its worth, that 
they sow it;very largely, and often to the exclusion of the Loliums, for sheep 
and cattle pasture. 
Another genus of grasses very valuable for permanent pasture are the 
fescues— Festuca gigantea, F. elatior, F. pratensis, F. rubra, F. duriuscula— 
and many others of these valuable grasses are in this climate growing 
vigorously, and yielding herbage in the winter when the so-called perennial 
rye is nearly dormant. These fescues, sending their roots deeply down, find 
elements to assist their healthy growth when other grasses are attacked by 
fungus and other diseases; and the instinets of sheep and cattle will cause 
them to erop these grasses in certain seasons instead of any others. 
Among the red clovers for permanent pastures in this colony, none are 
better than the Trifolium pratense perenne, or cow-grass, as it not only 
continues to grow year after year when it has been sown, and produces a 
large amount of herbage, but it very frequently has its seeds fertile, and 
sows itself down if not too closely cropped in the autumn. In a small 
paddock in which I had it sown some years since with many other kinds of 
grasses, plants of it are to be found far distant from the place in which it 
was originally sown, and each year I observe an increasing quantity of 
plants. 
