D A C T Y L I S .
Gene. Char. Calyx with two valves, keeled, and compressed, the upper yalve the
largest. Gen. Plant.
DACTYLI S GLOME RATA. {4»;>««.
Clustered. Cock's-foot.
Spec. Char. Panicle clustered, lower branch expanding.
Almost all places, uplands and lowlands, woods and thickets, produce this grass, which though
coarse, yet is one of the most productive: its attachments are singular; it courts hedges and shady
places, and the drippings o f large trees, which are pernicious to most other pasture grasses, are gratefiil
to this. Though the Cock’s-foot-grass * may not be a favourite in the good pasture lands, nor perhaps
be relished by the finer-mouthed cattle, yet surely would be eagerly devoured by the poor beast one sees
perambulating the exhausted fences, and lowing for food, during the severity, o f the winter and spring
months. One often sees a field o f the finer grasses swept with the scythe, when the crop can hardly
repay the labour, whereas were the Cock’s-foot encouraged round hedges, fences, or shady places, a
full swath might be almost ensured.----- -There is no grass which w e admit into bur pastures which
bears mowing so'well as this Dactylis, nor which produces so abundant an after crop, and if a field
is examined after the scythe has passed over it, the first grass that springs again, even in the dryest
season, will be found to be the Cock’s-foot: its increase in wet seasons is amazing, and its shade-
loving habits would secure a crop when many other grasses in dry summers fail; and none but panv
pered cattle would refuse the hay, especially if mixed with a small portibn of our finer grasses.____
Jt is not to be wished that the herbage of our fine meadow lands should be supplanted by the Cock’s-
foot, but that its growth should be encouraged in places where the exhausted turf yields little or
nothing, as surely coarse food is preferable to none. Keep is pretty generally exhausted towards the
end of April, or the beginning of May, whereas by a larger supply (though not perhaps a marketable
grass) it Would last till the fields again coulcl furnish food.--------- Though many an agriculturist may
smile at theoretical projections, yet how often has practice, when study has been directed to the walks
o f nature, reaped the benefit o f its suggestions! and though perfection is not aimed at, improvement
may be attained; and if by such means one idea subservient to public welfare, or individual advantage,
can be produced, surely that man has not laboured in vain.
A, the Calyx.
B, the Corolla.
* The name of Cock's-foot, by which this grass is known, is not wholly inapplicable, for by inverting the flowering
heads, some idea is given of the animal’s foot, with the lower branch projecting like a spur.