62 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF BRITISH GRASSES. 
Plot 3. A little larger, but otherwise not distinguishable 
from plot 2. 
Now in the sixth year the F. elatior form prevails in all 
the plots. Here, then, we think that it is satisfactorily 
proved that these three forms are all referrable to a single 
species, as the change has taken place, not by hybridisation, 
but in individuals; at the same time they may maintain 
their distinctive characters under the following circum- 
stances :— 
1. In meadows by the side of rivers, especially where 
subjected to occasional floods—as the Isis at Oxford, or 
irrigated meadows on the banks of the Churn at Cirencester. 
The F. loliacea is constant, and is a most valuable grass for 
hay or pasture. 
2. In rich meadow flats, as in the vale of Berkeley, the 
celebrated locality for the production of double Gloucester 
cheese, the F. loliacea, var. pratensis, is a common and 
valuable denizen, and any meadow where it maintains its 
characteristics may be considered as good in quality. 
3. On the alluvial sandy clay banks by the seaside, or 
poor silicious clays inland, the variety elatior rears its tall 
coarse form. In the county of Gloucester the warp mud 
on the banks of the Severn estuary is always occupied by 
this grass, which we look upon only as the extension of the 
pratensis from the rich flats within the sea-wall boundary. 
The F. pratensis is a grass which is always recommended 
for admixture in forming new pastures, on which account 
there can be but little doubt that it was used in the glades 
laid down within the last few years at the entrance of 
Oakley Park, the seat of the Earl Bathurst. When first 
sown it came up true enough, though with a disposition to 
harshness ; the last three years it has become elatior in all 
its features, and is now in such large coarse tussacs, or 
hassocks as they are technically called, as to make the spot 
dissightly as a lawn and much impaired for hay or pasture. 
The secret here appears to be that the soil consists of 
sandy clays of the Forest marble rock, the texture of which 
