170 



capabilities of the Ray-grass and other agricultural species, this fact 

 must not be lost sight of any more than the character of the soil in 

 which the samples have been grown. Such estimates, indeed, how- 

 ever worthy of credit may be the authority under which they are put 

 forth, should always be received with caution ; not so much as being 

 liable to error in the experiments on which they are founded, as from 

 the conditions of those experiments being diiferent to the circum- 

 stances under which we are depending for corresponding results. 

 Admitting the possibility of the latter to a limited extent, it may be 

 stated that, as a permanent pasture grass, Lolium perenne is of a much 

 lower rank than several other very common species ; and, that esti- 

 mating the value of Dactylis glomerata, the Eough Cock's-foot, at 

 eighteen ; that of Festuca pratensis, the Meadow Fescue, at seventeen ; 

 and that of Alopecarus pratensis, the Meadow Fox-tail, at twelve, the 

 common Ray-grass would stand only in the relative proportion of 

 five. Dr. Parnell, quoting these comparisons, observes : — " The Rye- 

 grass is but a short-lived plant, seldom remaining more than six years 

 in possession of the soil ; but is continued by its property of ripening an 

 abundance of seed, which is but little molested by birds, and suffered 

 to fall and vegetate among the root-leaves of the permanent pasture- 

 grasses." 



It is exclusively in the successional system of cultivation, and in a 

 few isolated instances apart from it, and dependent upon peculiarity of 

 soil and situation, that the importance of the grass before us is chiefly 

 manifested. It readily vegetates, from seed easily collected, on almost 

 every kind of soU, quickly arrives at maturity, and produces a plen- 

 tiful supply of early herbage, before the young plants come into flower. 

 In the spring it is, therefore, highly valuable, being greatly relished by 

 cattle, by which, however, the rigid flower-stems are always left un- 

 touched ; and, unless these latter are removed by timely mowing, the 

 after-crop is nearly worthless, the foliage dying away as the seed 

 approaches maturity. 



A variety of Ray-grass, introduced from the Continent, came into 

 use among our farmers generally about five-and- twenty years past, 

 and appears to be one of the most valuable of its kind. Although long 

 cultivated in southern G-ermany, the south of France, and Switzerland, 

 it originated on the plains of Lombardy, and hence has received the 

 name of Italian Ray-grass, or Lolium Italicum. It differs from the 

 more common varieties in having the spikelets very conspicuously 

 bearded, the flowers being all terminated by long slender awns, a 

 feature so striking as to have induced some botanists to regard it as a 

 distinct species. The great value of this grass consists in its being of 

 more rapid growth from seed than any of the other kinds, and in the 

 quantity of fine close herbage it produces under favourable circum- 

 stances ; but a , moist, rich soil, and means of copious irrigation, are 

 requisite to elicit these properties to the fuU extent. The peculiar 

 situation and condition of its birth-place in Northern Italy, broad, 

 level, pasture lands, open to periodical inundation from the mountain- 

 fed streams and rivers by which they are intersected, have conferred 

 upon it this character ; and, though a corresponding one is maintained 



