HORTUS GRAMINKUS WO B U I? NENS IS. 153 



When cultivated separately for the purpose of green food 

 or hay, fiorin requires to be kept perfectly clear of weeds, its 

 couchant habit of growth affording great encouragement for 

 the health of upright-growing plants — under this circum- 

 stance, weeds. The numerous fibrous roots that issue from 

 the joints of the trailing shoots or stolones exhaust the 

 surface of the soil in a considerable degree ; top-dressings 

 with manure are therefore absolutely necessary to keep up 

 the superior productive powers of fiorin. Without these 

 points being sufficiently attended to in the cultivation of 

 this grass, disappointment will be the result. 



It perfects a sufficiency of seed, which readily vegetates; 

 and the plants, when properly encouraged by top-dressings, 

 I have found invariably to arrive soon at perfection. When 

 the runners or stolones are used instead of seed, the ground 

 is much sooner clothed with the grass : when meant as a 

 crop by itself, the planting of the shoots or stolones appears 

 to be the best mode ; but when intended as part of a 

 mixture of other grasses, the seed will be found by experi- 

 ence to be the most proper. 



It flowers about the second and third weeks of July, and 

 the seed is ripe about the second and third weeks of 

 August. 



The grasses and other plants that have now been submitted 

 to the better judgment of the reader, comprehend all the 

 grasses and plants which the author could ever find in the 

 bodi/ of the richest natural pastures, examined every month 

 of the year, and oftener ; some other species, it is true, were 

 sometimes found on particular spots, but could not, from 

 their local situation, be considered as naturally belonging to 

 such : they will be mentioned hereafter. 



To those who may have perused and bestowed some con- 

 sideration on the foregoing details, it may be unnecessary 

 to observe, that the facts and observations there brouo-ht 

 forward, offer sufficient proofs, that it is not from one or two, 

 but from a variety of different species of grasses, that the 

 agriculturist can hope to form, in the shortest space of time, 

 a sward equal, if not superior, to that of the richest natural 

 pasture. 



