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ture, and perhaps destined to become a meadow grass of 

 colder countries. 



Festuca ovina, E. 



Sheep-Fescue. Europe, North and Middle Asia, North 

 America, found also in South America and the Alps of 

 Australia and New Zealand. This species like F. elatior is 

 obtainable with facility. F. duriuscula, L. and F. rubra, L. 

 are varieties. A perennial grass, thriving on widely different 

 soil, even moory and sandy ground. It yields a good pro- 

 duce, maintains its virtue, resists drought, and is also well 

 adapted for lawns and the swards of parks. 

 The space does not admit of entering here into further 

 details of the respective value of many species of Festuca, 

 which might advantageously be introduced from various 

 parts of the globe for rural purposes. 



Ficus Carica, L * 



Orient. The ordinary Figtree. It attains an age of several 

 hundred years. In our latitudes and clime a prolific tree. 

 The most useful and at the same time the most hardy of 

 about a thousand recorded species of Ficus. The extreme 

 facility with which it can be propagated from cuttings, the 

 resistance to heat, the comparatively early yield and easy 

 culture recommend the Figtree to be chosen, where it is an 

 object to raise masses of tree-vegetation in widely treeless 

 landscapes of the warmer zones. Hence the extensive 

 plantations of this tree made in formerly woodless parts of 

 Egypt ; hence the likelihood of choosing the Fig as one of 

 the trees for extensive planting through favorable portions 

 of our desert-wastes, where moreover the fruit could be 

 dried with particular ease. Caprification is unnecessary, 

 even in some instances injurious and objectionable. Two 

 main-varieties may be distinguished, that which produces 

 two crops a year and that which yields but one. The former 

 includes the grey or purple Fig, which is the best, the white 

 Fig and the golden Fig, the latter being the finest in appear- 

 ance but not in quality. The main-variety, which bears 

 only one crop a year, supplies the greatest quantity of Figs 

 for drying, among which the Marseillaise and Bellonne are 



