| hairs from its spike. 
short-awned or orange-spiked, Alopecurus fulvus, 
in ponds in England. The bladdered and the 
slender are annuals; and the other six species 
are perennials. The species which make the 
strongest demand on our attention, and which 
we shall more particularly notice, are the slen- 
der, the bulbous, the knee-jointed, the meadow, 
and the black-headed. 
The slender foxtail-grass, Alopecurus agrostis, 
is one of the very worst species; 1t produces no 
herbage of any economical value; it is untouched 
by every description of live stock; and it often 
flourishes as a very troublesome weed among 
wheat, and is abhorred by farmers under the 
name of black bent. Its seed is very abundant, 
and serves as acceptable food to pheasants, par- 
tridges, and the smaller birds. It is distinguished 
from Alopecurus pratensis, the most useful species 
of foxtail-grass, by the total absence of woolly 
It flowers in the first week 
of July, and onward thence till October; and, 
when grown on sandy loam, it yields per acre 
8,167 lbs. of green produce, and 3,165 lbs. of dry 
| produce, and only 223 lbs. of nutritious matter. 
This worthless and annoying species prevails in 
poor soils, especially when they have been ex- 
hausted by avaricious cropping; and it resists, 
and more or less defeats, every kind of effort for 
its extirpation, except the prosecution of a wise 
and fertilizing rotation of crops. “It will be 
found a vain and unprofitable labour,” says Mr. 
Sinclair, “to attempt the removal of this grass 
by any other means than the opposite to that 
which gave it possession of the soil, which is 
judicious cropping. To return land in this state 
to grass, in the hope of overcoming this unpro- 
fitable plant, will be found of little avail. I have 
witnessed this practice; and the slender foxtail, 
instead of disappearing in these instances, re- 
appeared with the scanty herbage, and in greater 
health and abundance. The soil must first be 
got into good heart by very moderate and judi- 
cious cropping, which includes the proper appli- 
cation of manure, a skilful rotation of crops, and 
the most pointed attention to the destruction of 
weeds; which last can only be effected, in this 
sense, by adopting the drill or row culture for 
the crops. After this, the land may be returned 
to grass for several years, with every prospect of 
success.” The slender foxtail, while growing, 
sends forth flowering culms from the first week 
of July till the season of frost; so that, though 
repeatedly cut in one season, it suffers no mate- 
rial injury to its vitality or its powers of repro- 
duction. 
The bulbous foxtail-grass, Alovecurus bulbosus, 
appears to be but a degree less worthless than 
the slender species; but. in consequence of its 
fondness for salt marshes, it does not intrude 
upon the important situations of a farm in the 
troublesome and mischievous fashion of the other. 
A well-defined and permanent variety of the knee- 
jointed species,—the bulbous-rooted, knee-jointed 
ALOPECURUS. 
foxtail-grass, Alopecurus geniculatus bulbosus—is 
very liable to be mistaken for the bulbous foxtail- 
grass. ‘This is distinguished from the true geni- 
culatus by having a bulbous root; and by grow- 
ing on a much drier soil. But it possesses so 
comparatively small a proportion of nutritive 
matter, as to be nearly useless to the farmer. 
The prevailing variety of knee-jointed fox- 
tail-grass, Alopecurus geniculatus, is a fibrous- 
rooted perennial, of taller growth. See Fg. 
3. Plate VI. It occurs very frequently in the 
surface drains of meadows, and at the entrance 
of cattle-ponds; and is specially abundant in 
these situations upon clayey soils. It seems to 
be but little relished by either horses, cows, or 
sheep. Its proportion of nutritive matter is 
comparatively small; and its fondness for very 
moist soils renders it unsuitable for cultivation. 
It begins to flower in June, and continues to 
flower till the end of summer. The Alopecurus 
geniculatus bulbosus, when in flower, and when 
grown upon sandy loam, yields per acre 5,445 Ibs. 
of green produce, and 1,089 lbs. of dry produce, 
and only 85 lbs. of nutritive matter. 
The black - headed foxtail- grass, Alopecurus 
nigricans, was introduced to Great Britain so re- 
cently as the year 1815, and promises to be of 
considerable importance among the gramineous 
productions of British farms. It thrives in good 
loams, or in rich silicious soils containing a com- 
petent mixture of argillaceous matter; and, if 
merely sown on the surface, and not compressed, 
it grows with facility and luxuriance. W. P. 
Taunton, Esq., of Ashley—in honour of whom 
the species is sometimes called Alopecurus Taun- 
tonvensis—made experimental sowings of it in 
1841, upon strong woodsour clay over chalk, in a 
tolerably well sheltered situation, but without 
any extraordinary manuring, and at an elevation 
of some 500 or 600 feet above the level of the | 
sea; and he found that, before the close of April, 
some of its stalks were in flower, and had at- 
tained a height of upwards of three feet; and he | 
was induced to say respecting it, in a letter to 
the secretary of the Royal Agricultural Society 
of England, “ Its bulk, hardihood, succulence, 
and precocity, inspire me with the hope that the 
committee will think that, in pursuing the cul- 
ture of this grass, I shall be making a useful ac- 
quisition to English husbandry.” Though it comes 
into flower in the end of April or the beginning | 
of May, it continues to send up flowering culms 
till October; so that, while distinguished for the 
remarkable earliness of its herbage, it also pro- 
duces as much late herbage as some of the best 
grasses which do not flower till a late period in 
summer. Its roots are very slightly yet quite 
evidently stoloniferous or creeping ; and, though 
they in consequence unfit it for some of the most 
prominent purposes of the system of alternate 
husbandry, yet they very specially and eminently 
qualify it for others; for they are just stoloni- 
ferous enough to secure the continuance and ex- 
SANS ESS A in sy 3G 
