THE NATURAL HISTORY OF BRITISH GRASSES. 49 
they are both of them useless; but the former is well 
worthy of study for its indication of soil and its condition. 
The B. pinnatum will be found partially intermixed with 
the grass of most poor upland pastures on limestone, to 
which small isolated specimens it is confined under a con- 
stant system of depasturing ; but if left wild or only occa- 
sionally stocked, it is astonishing how quickly the least bits 
spread into rounded patches, often of several yards in 
diameter, which, if cattle be turned into in the summer, 
they leave wholly untouched, and so it seeds, besides 
spreading by short rhizomes until the greater part of a 
pasture may be taken possession of by this useless and 
distasteful grass. 
The best way to get it under is to fold sheep on a portion 
at a time, especially through the early spring, feeding them 
with corn, hay, and a few turnips; in which case the dead 
grass is trodden into manure, and the sheep manuring so 
encourages the growth of the sprinkling of better species, 
which before were thin and isolated, that the enemy is 
subdued in an incredibly short space of time; even one 
season being enough to destroy the greater portion, and 
reclaim a pasture that was before going fast to waste. 
The B. pinnatum is also a great pest in hedgerows and 
‘on mounds, especially on the Cotteswolds, where it is a 
constant denizen. It should be carefully forked from the 
former, and before it has seeded, especially in the young 
state of the fence, as, from its upright and close method of 
growth, much injury results to the quick from being smoth- 
ered, besides the exhausting powers which it possesses. 
The B. sylvaticum is usually refused by all kinds of 
animals, but, from the readiness with which it grows under 
wood, it affords a tolerable covert for game. 
Lorium—glume of one valve to the lateral (not trans- 
verse), locuste, two to the terminal one; gluwmels 
sometimes awned. 
Lolium perenne—perennial rye-grass—locuste of from 
