APPENDIX II. 



OF THE GRASSES WHICH AFFORD THE BEST CULMS, OR STRAW, 



FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF STRAW BONNETS, SUCH AS WILL 



EQUAL, AND MAY SURPASS, THE FINEST LEGHORN MANU- 

 FACTURE. 



Straw-plaiT; in imitation of the celebrated Leghorn manu- 

 facture, has been made in England for many years past, but 

 the practice till lately had been confined to the London 

 manufacturers of straw bonnets. Above seventeen years 

 since, land was taken at Ampthill, on the estate of the late 

 Earl of Upper Ossory, for the express purpose of raising 

 straw for this kind of plait ; and a few years since, a very 

 fine straw bonnet was sent to the Duchess of Bedford from 

 Leighton Buzzard, where it had been manufactured from 

 English straw. About three years since, Miss Woodhouse, 

 a farmer's daughter of Connecticut, transmitted to the 

 Society of Arts in London, a straw bonnet in imitation of 

 the Leghorn, made of the straw of poa pratensis, smooth- 

 stalked meadow-grass (or the spear-grass of America), which, 

 from its excellence, obtained the reward of the Society. 

 Mr. Cobbett published an account of this circumstance in his 

 " Cottage Economy," and also an account of his own expe- 

 rience in selecting the best grasses for the purpose, and of 

 bleaching the green culms or straw, and for which Mr. Cob- 

 bett received the Society's medal. 



The lady of the Rev. Mr. Morrice, of Great Brickhill, 

 Bucks, manufactured a very beautiful straw bonnet, in imi- 

 tation of Leghorn, of the culms of the crested dog's-tail 

 grass {cynosuriis cristatus), which, being submitted to the 

 Society of Arts, obtained the Society's medal. Very great 

 merit was displayed in the manufacture of this bonnet. 



