Curt.—Grasses, etc., suitable to New Zealand. 588 
nately the case that, in many fields laid down to grass in New Zealand, 
only two or three kinds of grass and clover are sown as a mixture, and then 
not always of the best sorts. Some pastoralists think it sufficient to sow 
one of the Loliums and a clover; and, not knowing that the so-called 
Perennial Rye Grass will not last longer than two or three years if closely 
fed down, their fields soon cease to fatten enough live stock to give a profit- 
able return for the capital invested. If they knew that the Rye Grass is 
naturally a biennial, but that by Pacey, Lawson, Sutton, Stickney, and 
others, it has been by careful growing and experiment so changed that it 
will live longer than its natural two years, if carefully treated, but, if not so 
treated, it will in no wise be perennial. In no case should this grass alone, 
or with a clover, be the only grass sown, or it will soon die out, and useless 
weeds will take its place. But as neither space nor opportunity will in this 
place permit me to go into the merits of the numerous useful grasses for 
sowing upon perennial pastures, I will confine myself to a short description 
of some of the grasses that could be introduced with advantage by graziers, 
and, without crowding too many into this space, a few may be now men- 
tioned as of considerable value—some for summer, and others as winter 
herbage, being among others, Elymus condensatus, Panicum spectabile, Panicum 
hispidulum, Stenotaphrum glabrum, Bromus secalinus, Festuca gigantea, Cynodon 
dactylon, Dactylis cespitosa, Elymus cristatus, Gynerium argenteum, Milium 
multiflorum, Phalaris canariensis, Briza major. 
The Californian Lucerne, or Alfalfa, a Melilotus from Thibet, Trifolium 
incarnatum, Pentzia virgata. Among the more than 800 kinds of panic 
grass, there is one, the 
Panicum spectabile, or Coapin Grass of Angola, that, if introduced into a 
mixture for permanent pasture, will be most desirable for its valuable pro- 
perty of growing very luxuriantly in the hottest and dryest summer weather. 
Having obtained the seed of Panicwm spectabile from various places and 
persons—some from Mr. Phillips, some from Dr. Schomburgh, and others— 
the different lots of seed were sown in the month of October in several suc- 
cessive years. The seed vegetated, and came up readily in the drills where 
sown, and continued to grow all through the dryest and hottest weather, 
until the plants were four and five feet high, when it set its seed and ripened 
it, and continued to grow vigorously until stopped by the winter frost, when 
it ceased to grow during the winter; and in the month of October following, 
in each year, it again came up from the roots that had been dormant during 
the cold weather, and again grew each year as vigorously as at first. Its 
strong succulent herbage was much relished by stock, and when eut down 
quickly grew again without any irrigation or watering. It contains large 
quantities of nutriment, and is in every way valuable as a summer or hot- 
