e. I hear it has been cultivated in
Yorkshire; hence probably its name. Two bushels of the seed would sow
an acre; and it is sometimes met with in our seed-shops. It will grow in
any soil, but thrives best in a moist loam.

26. HOLCUS mollis. CREEPING SOFT-GRASS.--Mr. Curtis in the third edition
of his Treatise on Grasses says, he is induced to have a better opinion
than formerly of this grass, and that Mr. Dorset also thinks it may be
cultivated to advantage in dry sandy soils. I have never seen it exhibit
any appearance that has indicated any such thing, and do not recommend
it.

27. HORDEUM pratense. MEADOW BARLEY-GRASS.--This is productive, and
forms a good bottom in Battersea meadows: but although I have heard it
highly recommended, I should fear it was much inferior to many others.
One species of Barley-grass, which grows very commonly in our
sea-marshes, the Hordeum maritimum, is apt to render cattle diseased in
the mouth, from chewing the seeds, which are armed with a strong bristly
awn not dissimilar to the spike of this grass.

28. LOLIUM perenne. RAY- or RYE-GRASS.--This has been long in
cultivation, and is usually sown with clover under a crop of spring
corn. It forms in the succeeding autumn a good stock of herbage, and the
summer following it is commonly mown for hay, or the seed saved for
market, after which the land is usually ploughed and fallowed, to clear
it of weeds, or as a preparation for Wheat, by sowing a crop of Winter
Tares or Turnips. The seed is about six or eight pecks per acre, and ten
pounds of Clover mixt as the land best suits. Although this is a very
advantageous culture for such purposes, and when the land is not to
remain in constant pasture; yet it is by no means a fit grass for
permanent meadow, as it exhausts the soil, and presently goes into a
state of decay for want of nourishment, when other plants natural to the
soil are apt to overpower it. There are several varieties of this
grass. Some I have seen with the flowers double, others with branched
panicles; some that grow very luxuriantly, and others that are little
better than annuals; and there is also a variety in cultivation called
PACEY's Rye-grass, much sought for. But I am of opinion that nothing but
a fine rich soil will produce a very good crop, and that the principal
difference, after all, is owing more to cultivation or change of soil,
than to any real difference in the plant itself.

29. MELICA coe