CuEL. — On Grasses. 349 



sea ; and I know tlie IIolcus lanatus will grow on most soils, however stilf 

 or wet they may be, as well as tlie Plantago lanceolata. 



The Cijnosunis cristatus will make a permanent pasture for sheep on the 

 driest and iDoorest gravelly downs, and be greatly assisted by the Pentzia 

 virgata, or Cape-sheep bush ; whilst the OiiobrycMs sativa will only grow 

 profitably for feeding on soils containing a considerable proportion of lime ; 

 whUe 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 carrymg pollen grain to fertihze 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 shee^D and produce 

 disease in them if they eat them when their young growth is first com- 

 mencing in spring, Phleum 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 chmate 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 instincts of sheep and cattle will cause 

 them to croxD 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 iucreasing quantity of 

 plants. 



