Could a better description be given of a fiorin stolo, running along the furface, rooting from its knots or joints, croffing the bone, rooting at the other fide and fettering it to the ground, as the Lilliputians ferved Gulliver? Is this a defcription of couch grafs?

GOLO GOCH too (as quoted by Mr. Pugh, fo well verfed in Celtic literature) celebrates the verdure and luxuriance of the fiorin grass, in the parks and inclofures of OWEN GLENDOWER, whofe bard Golo was.

I have indulged a wild conjecture on the caufe why this grafs should be known in fome parts of our iflands, and overlooked or mifreprefented in England.

The Scotch and Welsh, it appears, know it; and I myself never queftioned a native Irishman on its fubject, who was not perfectly acquainted with the fondness of his cattle for fiorin grass.

The unequal difperfion of the fiorin grafs may be a matter of curiofity. We may be surprised at the deviation of nature from her ufual rules, in accommcdating one favourite vegetable to all soils, all altitudes, and all climates. But the real and important question before us is, as to its value; for what avails my repeated boaft, that fiorin grows fpontaneously, and of course may be cultivated in every acre in the united kingdom, unless I fhew at the fame time that its crops will fully reward the labours of its cultivator.

To effectually establish the truth of my first posi tion, my proof muft not merely be positive, but alfo

comparative: fimple value is not enough; I must convince the agriculturift of its preference, and that he will find his intereft in abandoning the culmiferous produce he has hitherto been used alone to fave, and look, to ftoloniferous produce, with due attention to the difference between the habits and periods of fuch a diffimilar ftile of crops.

Upon this point of value I have dwelt much at length in different Effays; fome of which I have taken the liberty to present to your refpectable Society.

In thefe I have established, by fuch a mass of evidence as has rarely been brought together, all the prominent good qualities of this favourite grafs of mine. The great fuperiority of its hay over all others in quality the immenfe produce it gives, running from five to seven and even eight tons to the English acre and now becoming by practice bétter acquainted with it, and having carried my culture of it into more favourable grounds, I have boafted that I hope next year to reach ten tons.

The fuperiority of this grafs over all others is preferved in many circumstances of no fmall importance. Facility of propagation; facility in the tranfmiffal of its prolific ftolones; no trouble in faving or ftoring them, they remaining where they grow until wanted for ufe. And where the speculation is hazarded, of reclaiming immenfe tracts, facility in procuring stock of plants or ftrings to any amount, however enormous.

I stated a year and a half ago, in a letter to my friend the Earl of Rofs, on reclaiming the Bog of Allen, that, with a reasonable notice, I should engage to find ftolones fufficient to lay down one thoufand acres. I add, what is of much importance, rapidity of growth, that is, quickness in acquiring value. I have at different times laid down fiorin in April, and once on the first of May, and mowed a fine crop that season. My neighbour Mr. Ryan laid down in March last three roods, and has now (January 4th) ftanding the best first crop of fiorin I ever faw: did he not mean to use it as green food, I venture to say it would produce fix tons of fine hay to the English acre.

I may be told I put forward the good qualities of this grafs with too great confidence, and dwell fo much on its excellencies as to overstrain belief. But let it be remembered, that every one of thefe good qualities is full in my own view, and that I have for years been calling upon the world even with importunity, to come and witness the facts I was perpetually laying before them on this fubject.

The Scotch accepted my challenge, and on the 14th of January laft fent over a gentleman from Dumfriesfhire with letters to me. He had no other object but to infpect and report upon my proceedings, and particularly to fee if I actually would mow on January the 15th, as I had promised to do.

On his return home, this gentleman published a minute account of what he had feen, with high en

comiums on fiorin, and very particular instructions for its culture, which I had given him. And alfo be it remembered, that I have not limited myself to a contracted stile of experiment, forcing, by attention and manure, small patches into great luxuriance; but that I have carried my culture of fiorin into extenfive practice, that I have laid down at Clonfecle twenty-one acres with it, and three at Portrush, all prefentable and perpetually infpected from all quarters. Nor does distance preclude conviction being carried every where to those who are defirous of obtaining it.

Fiorin does not (like fome of our best graffes) grow in tufts; its thick fleece is formed by a vaft number of ftolones, diftinct from each other, falling down and covering the furface with great uniformity. Hence with cafe a fod may be raised with its ftolones as they grow, and tranfmitted for a fpecimen of the whole meadow,ex pede Herculem.

Specimens of this description are already on their way to the Bath Agricultural Society; they shall be followed by others, not merely for the gratification of curiofity, but also to serve for the purposes of propagation; as when the fods are torn to pieces, weeks or months after exhibition, every single string will become the parent of a fiorin root from every one of its joints.

In September 1808, I inclofed to a Noble Earl in the north of Scotland two fuch ftrings in his own frank. In thirteen months his Lordship wrote to

me that they had fo multiplied as to enable him to lay down two acres. Experiments may be made on fiorin grafs on the most diminutive fcale. A plot in a garden a few feet fquare, will be found fufficient to exhibit the luxuriance of a fiorin crop, the number and length of its ftolones, with the predilection of all cattle for it. Even the citizen limited to his ftreet is not precluded from fatisfying himself of the powers of fiorin; he, like his brethren, is probably cafting a longing look forward to rural occupations, in a more airy and more roomy fituation. At prefent he has only to plant a fiorin root in a fmall flower-pot, and fet it on his window ftool; this will foon emit numerous ftolones, which will hang down into the street in great luxuriance.

My friend Mr. Dickinson, a member of the Bath Society, afked where he fhould find fiorin, I having boafted it grew fpontaneously in every square perch in England. I replied, go to the north wall of your parish church, pick up the roots of grafs in contact with the wall. Mr. Dickinfon did fo, and enclosed to me a small root under his frank. I put it in a little pot in my hot-house, where it foon vegetated, and proved its fpecies, by emitting fome ftolones. In fummer it was put in the fhade with other pots, and no more thought of for fix months, when a new gardener brought it to me to know what it was. I then counted fixty-feven tolones; great numbers of which had, when in the fhade, reached to the