272 
On some Varieties of the Foxtail Grass. 
formation in the Vale of Pcwscy, Wilts, and Vale of White Horse, Berks ; 
where you may see our native foxtail attain the height of 5 or 6 feet in 
the moist meadows. It is not a thing usually to he expected that an 
exotic should he capable of being cultivated more easily and effectually 
than our native plants of the same genus ; yet I am inclined to think 
that such is tlie case with two or three of the foreign foxtails. I have 
rarely examined the seed of the Englisli meadow-foxtail without finding 
a very large proportion of it possessed by an insect, which has been bred 
in the seed, and, after feeding on the grain, has gnawed its way out, and 
left a round orifice to tell the tale. Hence, out of a bushel of seed 
thereof, which is always dear, a very small proportion is in a vegetative 
condition ; and the inexperienced meadow-maker vents his complaints 
on the ill-treatment he has received from his seedsman — as if the seeds- 
man had laid the eggs of all the maggots in the crop. Now I have 
scarcely ever observed any of the seeds, either of Alopecurus nujricans, 
A. arundinaccus, or A. arjrcstis (perenn ), of some German botanists, 
on which my partial friend bestowed the appellation of A. Tanntoniensis, 
to be perforated by this or any other insect; and an equal quantity of 
the seed of either of these sorts appears to me to afford a greater number 
of plants than the like bulk of meadow-foxtails. This, then, is an advan- 
tage in the foreigners. Another advantage, I think, is that the seeds 
of all these three foreign sorts, when perfect, are of a dark colour, vary- 
ing from a slate-coloured grey to jet-black, according to their degree of 
ripeness and fullness; for the flower-spikes of these and of the meadow- 
foxtail equally are liable to be blighted or injured by unseasonable spring 
frosts, or some other cause. When this happens to the meadow-foxtail, 
there is no easily distinguishable difference of colour between the 
blighted heads and the ripened heads ; and, as I doubt whether seeds- 
men usually winnow the grass-seeds they sell, the blighted or frost-bitten 
heads introduce another element of disappointment into the bushel of 
meadow-foxtail seed, for which you have paid from I2s. to 15?. The 
three foreign sorts, however, disclose to the eye at a glance what pro- 
portion of the contents of the bushel has been rendered worthless by this 
cause, and what valuable; for the blighted and frost-bitten heads of all 
these three sorts are white, like the meadow-foxtail. But a more im- 
portant advantage than the foregoing is that, according to Mr. Sinclair's 
analysis, A. Tanntoniensis, at the time of flowering, possesses treble the 
proportion of nutritious matter which our native meadow-foxtail jios- 
sesses ; r.nd A. artindinuceiis more than treble of that proportion. (See 
' Hort. Gram. Woburn.,' pp. 140, 231-33 ) The latter, to the best of my 
recollection (for I have lost sight of it for several years), though taller and 
more bulky, does not produce so many radical leaves as our native species : 
the A. Tamitonieiisis is not quite so bulky as the native sort, 1 think, 
but is well garnished with radical leaves. Your skilful and respected 
member Humphrey Gibbs, Esq., says that A. arvndiiiaccus is more 
productive than A. nigricans. As I have never had them in cultivation 
together, I have had no opportunity to compare them ; but A. nujricans, 
with me, gives a greater burthen than A.pratensis or A. Tainiloniensis. 
In the sowing of these grasses on a stiff clay, I persuade myself I 
have learned, from experience, that repeated rollings immediately after 
