464 Tlie Natural History of British Grasses. 
Now, the first do not appear to grow anywhere as wild plants, 
but may in all cases be deemed as derivatives obtained from 
wild examples by cultivation through a long series of years, and 
hence the varieties — not species — which will be found to abound 
in all of them. These variations maintain a great permanency 
of form if the circumstances of cultivation be strictly maintained, 
but left to themselves they would either die out altogether, or 
revert once again to some original wild type. 
The natural grasses which it is the object of these papers to 
illustrate may, for convenience, be divided into the following 
groups : — 
1. Jungle, or Bush Grasses. 
2. Aquatic, or Water Grasses. 
3. Marine, or Seaside Grasses. 
4. Meadow, or Pasture Grasses. 
5. Agrarian, or Fallow Grasses. 
1. Jungle grasses are those which for the most part have a 
tendency to grow in a distinctive and separate manner, assuming 
in some tropical examples, where they reach their maximum, the 
height of 50 or 60 feet, presenting more the aspect of trees than 
the lowly herbs of our northern species. 
In our own country, though we fall far short in size, yet many 
of our species have the same disposition of growing in distinct 
branches, having no inclination to form a matted turf, but mix 
with shrubs, or grow as separate plants beneath tall trees, or 
maintain a distinctive form even in meadows. Of these the 
following may be appealed to as examples : — 
Aira caispitosa — Turfy hah-grass (hassock-grass of farmers). 
Avena jjratcnsis — Narrow-leaved oat-grass. 
•Brachypodium jjinnatam — Heath false brome-grass. 
„ sylvaticum — Slender false brome-grass. 
Elymus Europaus — Wood lyme-grass. 
Festuca elatior — Tall fescue-grass. 
There are other grasses which, if cultivated by themselves, 
assume the same distinctive, and even cushion form of growth, as 
Festuca ovina* — Sheep's fescue. 
,, duriuscula — Hard fescue. 
Dactylis glomerata — Cocksfoot. 
These always grow in tufts when sown thin for permanent 
2)asture, if the land be poor, but is soon prevented by depasturing, 
* This is almost the only grass -which will grow beneath the tall beech groves 
^()f the Cotteswokls, though never in a matted turf, but always in distinct hai^socks. 
It grows the same in my experimental plot in the Botanical Garden of the Royal 
Agricultural College. 
