CYNOSURUS. 



253 



destined for sheep-feeding. Messrs. Wheeler, on the 

 other hand, recommend it chiefly for upland pastures, 

 because " from its never growing in tufts it thoroughly 

 mixes in the pattern of the 

 turfy carpet." It is a very 

 durable grass, thoroughly 

 perennial in character, and 

 forming beautiful turf for 

 park as well as pasture. 

 Mr. Wheeler further informs 

 us, that " sheep are said to 

 be less liable to be affected 

 by the disease called 'foot- 

 rot/ when fed on pastures 

 containing a considerable 

 proportion of this grass, than 

 on such as are composed of 

 the more tender and soft- 

 leaved sorts." 



The rich pastures of Paignton, in Devonshire, those 

 about Liskeard in Cornwall, and some at Little Malvern, 

 famed for excellence, all abound in the Dog's-tail grass. 

 Mr. Marshall, in his ' York Economy/ declares this to 

 be the prevailing plant in the best grass meadows of the 

 Vale of Pickering, " some of which will feed a large cow 

 from May-day to Michaelmas." In the Communica- 

 tions to the Board of Agriculture it is asserted that the 

 Cynosorus cristatus " abounds much with seed, so that 

 many bushels may be gathered in a season by poor 

 women and children, and farmers purchase it at one 

 shilling a pound, and lay down many acres with it very 

 successfully." 



It is common throughout Europe and Western Asia. 



