THE PRINCIPLES OF BOTANY. 
77 
ledge and observation of which will enable any one conversant 
with the subject to estimate the value of a meadow with the 
utmost nicety. 
Our natural grasses, as distinct from the cereal or culti- 
vated and derivative corn grasses, may be conveniently 
grouped as follows : 
1. Jungle , or Bush Grasses. 
2. Marine , or Sea-side Grasses. 
3. Aquatic , or Water Grasses. 
4. Meadow, or Pasture Grasses. 
5. Agrarian, or Fallow Grasses. 
Of these the first three groups are such as may be found 
in the positions indicated. The species for the most part 
consist of interesting and large examples, which, however, 
do not usually afford pastuyage, at the same they form covert 
and often yield seeds to different kinds of birds. 
As regards the first, as soon as the forest is cleared they 
die off, so the marine examples require the vicinage of marine 
conditions, whilst the third group so far trench upon the 
meadow as to prefer wet places and swamps in the same. 
Their presence then at once indicates a want of drainage, 
the effectual working of which can be predicated by the 
dying out of the aquatic species. It is in this way that the 
advance of cultivation has utterly destroyed the wilder 
species, many of which are not found in districts they once 
occupied. 
As regards our fourth grotip, these may be subdivided 
according to the kind and quality of a meadow, as thus we 
may have — 
1. Upland pastures , thin soils or moorlands, the worst of 
these being scarcely worthy the name of meadow. 
2. Poor clays, many of which may be much improved by 
care and cultivation. 
3. Rich loams, including some of the best grass land. 
4. Flooded meadovjs, those on river banks subject to occa- 
sional floods. 
5. Irrigated meadows , in which water can be conducted 
through the grass at pleasure. 
That pastures in these positions are different in value will 
be gathered from the fact that the quantity and quality of the 
herbage upon them varies very considerably, and consequently 
the rent charge for them is highly variable. 
These two last items, however, are dependent upon the 
proportionals of the different kinds of grasses proper — to say 
nothing of other herbage-r-wliich enter into the composition 
of the produce. 
