The Herbage of Old G-rass Lands. 
423 
gramineous herbage, and (d) a few notes on the leguminous and 
the miscellaneous herbage. Then follows a summary table, into 
which much information has been condensed ; but this will be 
referred to in its proper place. 
It is necessary at this stage to direct attention to two points 
concerning the nomenclature adopted in the following descrip- 
tions. In the first place, it will be found that the expression 
" Agrostis sp." is used, meaning that the plant is a species of 
Agi'ostis, though the particular species is not expressed. In 
the reference table of species already given there occur Agrostis 
alba, Agrostis alba variety stolonifera, and Agrostis vulgaris. 
Botanists, however, are not entirely agreed as to these being 
separate species. Bentham, who was probably the greatest 
systematist of this centurv, regards all three as the same species, 
and he remarks ( " The British Flora," 1878) 
" Besides the great differences in size and stature, it varies in the more 
or less spreading panicle of a light .green or purplish colour, in the length 
of the ligula of the leaves, in the degree of prominence of the nerves of 
the glumes and the roughness of their keel, and in other minute particulars ; 
but all attempts to combine these characters so as to show distinct species, 
or even to separate marked or permanent varieties, have hitherto failed." 
Accordingly, I have not attempted the well-nigh impossible 
task of separating Agrostis into its varieties, though the form 
known as Agrostis stolonifera was as unmistakably present upon 
some of the plots — the Staffordshire turf (No. 6) for example — as 
the form usually regarded as Agrostis vulgaris was present on 
others. 
The second point concerns sheep's fescue and its varieties, 
which I have estimated together under the designation " Festuca 
ovina et var." Two types of fescue grass are known to agri- 
culturists, the broad-leaved forms, of which Festuca pratensis 
may be taken as the type, and Festuca loliacea and Festuca 
elatior probably as extreme modifications, and the narrow-leaved 
forms, represented typically by Festuca ovina. Both Bentham 
and Hooker, and even Babington to some extent, regard Festuca 
duriuscula and Festuca rubra as mere sub-species or varieties 
of Festuca ovina, and accordingly " Festuca ovina et var." 
may mean any or all of these three. The labour of separating 
the grasses was severe, and it would have been mere waste of 
time to have attempted to distinguish between the several forms 
of Agrostis and of the fine-leaved Festucas ; indeed, as in many 
cases there were only leaves, or fragments of leaves, it would 
have been impossible. Bearing this reservation in mind, we 
may pass on to the examination of the series of turfs. 
No. 1. — A turf sent by Mr. James Martin, of Wainfleet, 
