44 THE GRASSES— FIORIN. 



specimen of this exceptional crop, I procured a bundle 

 of the grass and found amongst it a fair proportion of 

 large plants of Kough-stalked Meadow grass, which no 

 doubt helped to make up the 'heavy yield. This 

 instance corresponds with certain facts connected with 

 the celebrated Orcheston Meadows near Salisbury, the 

 grass of which was found by Curtis to be principally 

 made up of Eough-stalked Meadow grass, and a species 

 he calls Agrostis palustris, which, from the description 

 given, appears to be the Florin. 



I have had also a report on this grass from another 

 Irish correspondent of experience, who says : " Florin 

 grass — the kind with the creeping stem — should be 

 cultivated by itself on moist ground for hay, of which 

 it gives several cuttings in the year of enormous pro- 

 duce and excellent quality. Cattle are extravagantly 

 fond of it, and the farmer by its use may convert 

 almost unprofitable swamps into the most valuable 

 land on his holding." 



The Seed.— As has been pointed out by Johnson, the 

 Florin, as is the case with plants generally which pro- 

 pagate themselves by lateral extension, produces very 

 little seed. Hence those who are desirous of culti- 

 vating it will succeed best by planting cuttings of the 

 creeping stems in drills an inch deep and slightly cover- 

 ing them with soil. The seed of commerce is almost 

 invariably not that of the true Fiorin, but is the seed 

 of some of the other worthless varieties — such as 

 Agrostis dispar, Agrostis vulgaris, Agrostis canina, &c. 

 Some of the leading seedsmen, having discovered this, 

 and having ascertained by experiment the impossibility 

 of getting seed of the true Fiorin, have struck it out of 

 their lists altogether — which is a much better plan than 



