III.—BOTANY, 
ArT. LVIIT,— Further. Observations upon certain Grasses and Fodder Plants, 
By 8. M. Curt, M.D, 
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 17th August, 1878.) 
Ix addition to those grasses and fodder plants I had the honour to recom- 
mend, in papers read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, in the 
years of 1876 and 1877,* there are others which I have tested, and which I 
would now desire to bring before this scientific society, 
All who have experimented in the introduction, culture, and growth of 
plants in New Zealand, will have been struck with the wonderful way in 
which plants from very differont climates seem to acclimatise themselves 
and do well in this country; and when looking through my notes upon the 
growth of hundreds of genera and species of grasses under test culture, it 
is interesting to find how many there are that have done not only more 
than was expected of them, but that have proved themselves fully worthy 
of being introduced here into the systems of farming and grazing in the 
several localities of this colony. 
The moderate range of temperature between the extreme heat of summer 
and the worst of our cold weather in winter, with the frequent occurring 
rains, seem to enable those plants that can be generally raised from seed to 
accustom themselves to this country, although they may be indigenous to 
very different climates. 
And as grasses and many fodder plants may be frequently removed from 
seed sown, the succeeding are more acclimatised than the preceding genera- 
tion, so that in a few years a race of plants are produced that have become 
accustomed to the climate, and whilst possessing their several characteristics 
have become hardy here, and have developed qualities that are not found in 
other species, and these various differences make them valuable to those 
requiring such particulars in the plants they cultivate. 
In growing grasses and fodder plants, not only is the constant succes- 
sion of growth in the diverse species a matter of much importance, as 
growing greater apania of herbage, but as cach species takos up and 
* Trans. N.Z. Inst. IX., p. 581; TUNE 345, 
