GRASS LANDS. 
23 
curious appearance ; and I should apprehend, that a 
truss of our hay from these districts, brought into the 
London market, or exhibited as a new article of proven- 
der at a Smithfield cattle-show, would occasion conver- 
sation and comment. The crop consists almost entirely 
of the common field scabious (scabiosa succisa), logger- 
heads (centauria nigra), and the great ox-eye daisy 
(chrysanthemum lucanthemum.) There is a scattering 
of bent (agrostis vulgaris), and here and there a speci- 
men of the better grasses ; but the predominant portion, 
the staple of the crop, is scabious — it is emphatically a 
promiscuous herbage ; yet on this rubbish do the cattle 
thrive, and from their milk is produced a cheese greatly 
esteemed for toasting — melting, fat, arid good flavored, 
and, perhaps, inferior to none used for this purpose. 
The best grasses, indeed, with the exception of the dogs- 
tail (cynosurus cristatus), do not delight in our soil: 
the meadow poa (p. pratensis), and the rough stalked 
poa (p. trivialis), when found, are dwarfish; and having 
once occasion for a few specimens of the foxtail (alope- 
curus pratensis), I found it a scarce and a local plant : 
but I am convinced, from much observation, that certain 
species of plants, and grasses in particular, are indige- 
nous to some soils, and that they will vegetate and ul- 
timately predominate over others that may be introduced. 
In my own very small practice, a field of exceedingly 
indifferent herbage was broken up, underwent many 
plowings, was exposed to the roastings of successive 
suns, and alternations of the year under various crops ; 
amongst others that of potatoes ; the requisite hackings, 
hoeings, and diggings of which alone were sufficient to 
eradicate any original fibrous, rooted herbage. This 
field was laid down with clean ray grass (lolium perenne), 
white trefoil, and hop clover, and did tolerably well for 
one year : and then the original soft-grass, (holcus lana- 
tus) appeared, overpowered the crop, and repossessed 
the field ; and yet the seed of this holcus could not 
have lain inert in the soil all this time, as it is a grass 
that rarely or never perfects it§ seed, but propagates by 
its root. The only grass that is purposely sown — tre- 
foils are not grasses — is, I believe, the ray, or rye, no 
