299 
ture, and perhaps destined to become a meadow grass of 
colder countries. 
Festuca ovina, L. 
Sheep-Fescue. Europe, North and Middle Asia, North 
America, found also in South America and the Alps of 
Australia and New Zealand. This species like F. elatior is 
obtainable with facility. F. duriuscida, L. and F. nibra, L. 
are varieties. A perennial grass, thriving on widely different 
soil, even moory and sandy ground. It yields a good pro- 
duce, maintains its virtue, resists drought, and is also well 
adapted for lawns and the swards of parks. 
The space does not admit of entering here into further 
details of the respective value of many species of Festuca, 
which might advantageously be introduced from various 
parts of the globe for rural purposes. 
Ficus Carica, L.* 
Orient. The ordinary Figtree. It attains an age of several 
hundred years. In our latitudes and clime a prolific tree. 
The most useful and at the same time the most hardy of 
about a thousand recorded species of Ficus. The extreme 
facility with which it can be propagated from cuttings, the 
resistance to heat, the comparatively early yield and easy 
culture recommend the Figtree to be chosen, where it is an 
object to raise masses of tree-vegetation in widely treeless 
landscapes of the warmer zones. Hence the extensive 
plantations of this tree made in formerly woodless parts of 
^gypf ; hence the likelihood of choosing the Fig as one of 
the trees for extensive planting through favorable portions 
of our desert-wastes, where moreover the fruit could be 
dried with particular ease. Caprification is unnecessary, 
even in some instances injurious and objectionable. Two 
main- varieties may be distinguished, that which produces 
two crops a year and that which yields but one. The former 
includes the grey or purple Fig, which is the best, the white 
Fig and the golden Fig,' the latter being the finest in appear- 
ance but not in quality. The main- variety, which bears 
only one crop a year, supplies the greatest quantity of Figs 
for drying, among which the Marseillaise and Bellonne are 
