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I could fupport the truth of my fecond pofition by innumerable inftances in thefe iflands. I fhall now proceed to other kingdoms; for while this ineftimable grafs is thus fcattered profufely by nature over a very great variety of foil, and every elevation, in our own country; fhe feems to have been equally liberal of it to all other regions, and to have endowed it with the faculty of accommodating itself to all climates.

A Reviewer attacked me, on the fuppofition that I did not know that the agroftis ftolonifera, the Irish fiorin, throve in Iceland.

My friend General Macan, now commanding the cavalry in India, authorizes me to fay, that the fiorin he saw at my house is the celebrated Doob grafs of India, on which their horfes are almoft exclufively maintained in that country: and the General, with other India friends, affure me, their mode of laying it down is precisely the fame with my own. A medical gentleman from this country, fettled in Madeira fince I brought notice on fiorin, writes home that this grass abounds in Madeira.

I fhall quote a paffage from Bartram's Travels in Eaft-Florida in 1791.

"The swamps on the banks and islands of the "river are generally three or four feet above the "furface of the water, and very level; the timber "large, and growing thinly. The black, rich earth " is covered with moderately tall and very succulent

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grafs, which, when chewed, is fweet and agreeable "to the tafte, fomewhat like young fugar-cane. It

"is a jointed decumbent grafs, fending out radicles "from the joints into the earth, and it fpreads itfelf "by creeping over the furface."

Could fiorin grafs be more accurately defcribed? Succulent and faccharine, emitting ftolones, and found in the very fituation where we should have met with it here. The thinly-fcattered trees injuring other vegetables, while florin is unaffected by fhade, when not very thick.

The Jamaica grafs, imported to Madras by the late Sir Archibald Campbell, and fo ftrongly recommended by him, if not fiorin, at leaft is ftoloniferous; and it is upon the ftolones of grafs I am labouring to bring attention.

Any notice hitherto taken of fiorin grafs feems to be for the fole purpose of reprobating it.

Agricultural writers let themselves loose against it with a venom that could scarcely obtain credit, had we not their books before us.

Equally ignorant of the gifts and of the plagues which nature mixes up for us, they confound forin with couch grafs, though they bear no resemblance to each other. Our favourite is a production of the furface, which would rise erect, was it able to fupport itself; and which climbs, when it finds any thing to affift it.

COUCH GRASS (triticum repens) is pure root, runs horizontally under ground, much interfering with the roots of our crops.

FIORIN STOLONES, running along the furface, fend little radicles from their joints down into the ground, by which they extract fresh nourishment, that enables them to attain their great length.

COUCH GRASS, from its long horizontal roots, fends up at intervals, through the furface, fprouts, which foon turn into harsh culmi, generally with panicles interfering with our crop above the ground, as much as its long ftrings did with the roots below.

Not content with directing the attention of their readers to a wrong and odious object, by confounding names, they point their abuse direct against fiorin itfelf (agreftis ftolonifera); and, in their carelefs ignorance, faften upon its most prominent excellence, the ftrong predilection of every fpecies of cattle for it. Unhappily too for the credit of these gentlemen, of all the good qualities of the agroftis ftolonifera, this is the most eafily afcertained by those who will take the trouble of trying.

The experiment is made by every stranger that comes to my houfe. I fend himself to my rick for a handful of my best hay; his horse readily eats it: he then gets fiorin, which he also eats. He is then tried again with the firft. No, no more of that;

he looks about for the fiorin, and no effort can induce him to recur to the former.*

The cafe is the fame, if the graffes be offered while fresh cut. My children amufe themselves by laying a bundle of green fiorin on the ground, and covering it up carefully with other fresh cut grafs. A cow is then turned loose to it; fhe inftantly, by the fmell, difcovers the trick, toffes off with her horn the upper grafs, and falls greedily to the fiorin.

Hear these agricultural writers themselves. One tells us," it is of that coarfe nature that no cattle "will touch it." By another it is enumerated under its own name, agroftis ftolonifera, among the graffes not eligible for cultivation. The author proceeds: "There is no fpecies of agrostis that cattle are fond "of; and as they are generally avoided by cattle, "there is no reason to believe that any of them "would anfwer as hay." A third tells us, any "fort of stock would ftarve, rather than touch the "herbage of the agroftis ftolonifera."

* Since I had finished this memoir, a letter from a refpectable Member of the Bath Agricultural Society informs me, that this error is still perfifted in by many; I am therefore driven to the neceflity of accumulating all the proofs I can. My two friends, Dr. Bruce and Mr. Joy, made the fame experiment with much attention, but with a different refult. They chofe fome of my best common hay, and tendered it first to a horse, then to several stalled cows all these rejected it, after slightly fmelling to it; they at the time all living upon fiorin. My friends then tendered the fame cattle a bundle of fiorin, which they every one ate freely of.

The luxuriance of the fiorin fo obtrudes itself, that even these gentlemen could not overlook it. One tells us, "Though the crop is exceedingly thick on "the ground, it is perhaps not eighteen inches high." Another fays, "His field had run to agroftis ftolo"nifera, so that to walk upon it was like treading "on a cushion." And a third, "A ftranger is "often astonished at the apparent luxuriance of this "useless grafs."

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He then exclaims, "Of what

importance it would be to discover a grass that might thrive as well as this, and at the fame time "afford nutritious food for our cattle!"

After these, and abundance of fimilar tirades, am I to be furprized that the world fhould be flack in taking up (on my recommendation) the culture of the agroftis ftolonifera. These lecturers in agriculture were fatisfied with copying from their careless predeceffors, never troubling themfelves to ftudy nature.

Not fo the Poets. Thefe gentlemen were aware that excellence in their line was unattainable, without a thorough knowledge of nature and her productions; we do not find them fuffering fiorin and its properties to escape them.

The elegant WALTER SCOTT fhews that he knew fiorin well under the name of Knot Grafs; for it is nature, not names, that should engage our attention.

"The Knot Grafs fetters here the hand
"That once could burst an iron band."

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