THE NATURAL HISTORY OF BRITISH GRASSES. 9 
tionals of each species in their respective situations ; and as 
this latter point is one which is exceedingly difficult to 
ascertain with perfect exactitude, it may be stated that the 
results have been arrived at by long observation and great, 
pains-taking ; and if only approximating to truth, they will 
equally serve the object now in view, namely, that of show- 
ing the preference of some grasses for one set of circum- 
stances before another. 
The facts noted in the Table are mostly derived from 
observations made in the upland or Cotteswold district, and 
the vale or lowland part of Gloucestershire, and, therefore, 
not perhaps strictly true for all parts of England; yet I do 
not doubt but that they are correct as to their more general 
principles. 
Now, from this Table we learn that the kinds of soils 
noted have not only diferent species of grasses, but when 
the same do occur in lands of an opposite character, they 
are mostly very much altered in their proportionals. 
The differences between good, as compared with bad pas- 
tures, are in many cases the result of attention and good 
cultivation. Let us, for instance, suppose a poor clay ameli- 
orated. We must not then expect that its list of grasses 
will remain the same, or in the same proportions as are 
here tabulated; on the contrary bad grasses, which are ever 
present toa greater or less extent in every pasture, will 
nearly all die out, or if not so they greatly improve in 
quality, whilst many good ones, of which scarcely an ex- 
ample could be found before, rapidly increase. 
And, again, the many herbaceous plants distinct from 
grasses—such as Plantago media, broad-leafed plantain ; 
Bellis perennis, common daisy; and Ranunculus bulbosus, 
bulbous crowfoot; and many others—give place to a growth 
of grasses. 
This may be the more particularly observed in lands set 
apart for irrigation, as in such cases the changes are often 
very rapid; hence observations of these cases are very in- 
structive. Take the following example of a meadow in the 
