The Natural Histori/ of British Grasses. 
465 
bush, or fine-tine harrowing and rolling : these operations take 
away all mosses and dying grasses which have a tendency to rot, 
and thus form a humus soil around the roots — a circumstance pre- 
judicial to the growth of good turf. Rolling presses the whole 
together, and makes the soil firmer, a matter of great consequence 
in maintaining a pasture. Indeed, fertilizers and mechanical 
processes may be looked upon as the means which, after all, 
keep meadows in the form we now see them ; as in truly wild 
nature, there would be a greater tendency to a distinctive mode 
of growth than to the formation of a matted turf, as even simply 
depasturing supplies to a considerable extent all the requisites I 
have adverted to as necessary for the prevention of the jungle 
mode of growth, in many even of our meadow grasses. 
2. Aquatic or Water Grasses are those which elect to grow by 
the margins of rivers, in brooks and ditclies, or around the edges 
of ponds. These are not very numerous, nor are they generally 
of any agricultural value ; at the same time, as they may some- 
times be seen, especially in summer, without the contiguity of 
surface water, they afford excellent indications of a swampy and 
wet soil ; and as some of them prefer stagnant water, when they 
occur in ditches, or in the open meadow, these should at once 
inform us that our drainage is imperfect, and point to the neces- 
sity of draining if not previously done, or if already drained to 
the cleaning out of ditches, and looking more particularly to their 
levels. The following are amongst some of our more common 
water-grasses : — 
Arundo Phrac/mites — Common reed. 
Phalaris ariindinacea — Reed canary-grass. 
Ghjceria aquatica {Poa) — Reed meadow-grass. 
Poajlidtans — Floating meadow-grass. 
Catabrosa aquatica — Water whorl-grass. 
Alopecurus geniculatus — Floating foxtail-grass. 
Molinia ccerulea {Melica^ — Purple melic-grass. 
Aira ccespitosa — Hassock-grass. 
Of these, the four first mostly grow in water. The first, how- 
ever, frequently occurs in damp meadows, especially in their 
hedge-rows ; the four last may be found on oozy mud banks, 
thus often directing to a watershed or sprincj. The two last 
more especially affect furrows, and the neighbourhood of a 
defective drain. 
3. Marine or Sea-side Grasses. — Under this head we may just 
glance at a list of grasses which particularly affect the sea-coast, 
the contiguity of salt-water and banks of sand or marine mud 
being requisite for their growth in a natural state. Of these, the 
following may serve as examples : — 
