TIic Natural History of British Grasses. 467 
c. Rich deep loams. 
d. Nreatlows on the banks of rivers subject to periodical floods. 
e. Irrigated meadows, in which the water can be entirely con- 
trolled. 
In the Table (p. 468), therefore, are arranged twenty species ; 
in it the first and second columns are devoted to the botanical 
and trivial names of the grasses tabulated. The columns, 3, 4, 
5, 6, and 7, have reference to their distribution, the figures in 
these columns representing the proportionals of each species in 
their i-espective situations ; and as this latter point is one which 
is exceedingly difficult to ascertain with pei'fect exactitude, it 
may be stated that the results have been arrived at by long ob- 
servation and great painstaking ; and if only approximating to 
truth, they will equally serve the object now in view, namely, 
that of showing the preference of some grasses for one set of 
circumstances before another. 
The facts noted in the Table are mostly derived from ob- 
servations made in the upland or Cotteswold district, and the 
vale or lowland part of Gloucestershire, and, therefore, not per- 
haps strictly true for all parts of England ; yet I do not doubt 
but that it is correct as to its more general principles. 
Now, from this Table we learn that the kinds of soils noted 
have not only different species of grasses, but when the same 
do occur in lands of an opposite character, they are mostly very 
much altered in their proportionals. 
The differences between good, as compared with bad pastures, 
are in many cases the result of attention and good cultivation. 
Let us, for instance, suppose a poor clay ameliorated. We must 
not then expect that its list of grasses v, ill remain the same, or 
in the same proportions as are here tabulated ; on the contrary, 
bad grasses, which are ever present to a greater or less extent in 
every pasture, will nearly all die out, or if not so they greatly 
imjirove in quality, whilst many good ones, of which scarcely an 
example could be found before, rapidly increase. 
And, again, the many herbaceous plants distinct from grasses — 
such as Plantago media, broad-leafed plantain; Bellis perennis, 
common daisy ; and Ranunculus buUiosus, bulbous crowfoot; and 
many others — give place to a growth of grasses. 
This may be the more particularly observed in lands set apart 
for irrigation, as in such cases the changes are often very rapid ; 
hence observations of these cases are veiy instructive. Take the 
following example of a meadow in the neiglibourhood of Ciren- 
cester, a part of which is now under irrigation. 
The meadow observed upon is one on the banks of the Churn, 
and from its slope only half of it could be covered with water. 
It has a subsoil of oolitic gravel, so that although vale land, its 
