AGRICULTURAL GRASSES. 45 



At Eothamstead, Meadow Fescue was evidently not at home. 

 It appears to have some rather unexpected antipathies as to soil, 

 and in some localities is pushed out of pastures by other grasses. 

 Nitrate of soda and mineral manures alone seem capable of aug- 

 menting its growth. Stebler, however, speaks favourably of the 

 effects of fresh farm-yard manure. 



The botanical description and analysis of Festuca pratensis 

 are given at page 152, facing an illustration. 



FESTUCA ELATIOE 

 (Tall Fescue). 



The name F. elatior given to this grass by Linnseus not only 

 included the tall-growing variety which English botanists alone 

 know as F. elatior, but under that designation he included the 

 smaller sort, afterwards elevated into a distinct species by Hudson, 

 which is now known in England as F. pratensis. Although the 

 indigenous variety of F. elatior found exclusively in wet marshy 

 places, inland ditches, and tidal waters, is so coarse and harsh as, 

 according to Curtis, to be of little value for good pastures, Sinclair 

 pointed out its merits as a fodder grass for strong undrained clays 

 unsuited to the growth of the finer grasses. He also calls atten- 

 tion to the fact that no crop can be depended upon from the 

 sowing of the seed, and adds : ' It does not perfect much seed, 

 and can only, therefore, be propagated by parting and planting 

 the roots.' Again he says : ' The seed is universally, according 

 to all my observations, affected with a disease called clavus 

 (ergot),^ and consequently infertile.' On this ground Sinclair 

 actually named the grass Festuca elatior sterilis. And Curtis, at 



1 The UaHUty of this grass to the attack of ergot is in itself a very serious drawback, 

 and should not he without weight in deciding as to its introduction into a meadow. A 

 colspondent in the Agricnltural Ga^tte of August 30 1886, says :-' Tall Fescue seem 

 to be particularly liable to attack of ergot. A large bed of this grass m the Botamcal 

 Garden here (Dublin) was perfectly infested with that abnormal growth, while the neigh- 

 bouring grasses showed none.' 



