LIGHT SEEDS. 149 
almost imperceptible. In this example. the boundary between 
objectionable grasses and fiorin, cocksfoot, Timothy, etc., is of 
so narrow a description that many look on the above-named as 
weeds; but they have their advantages and values, or their 
culture would not be entertained. One of the chief 
advantages of fiorin is that it will thrive in a boggy soil, amid 
stagnant and water-slain places, where anything useful beyond 
Triticum caninum or rushes (which are chiefly useful for litter) 
would perish, and it produces an abundance of green herbage 
in early spring and late in the winter. During a mild winter 
it continues growing throughout, but stock will not eat it when 
they can get anything else. 
On good moist land fiorin thrives well, and during a wet 
summer it takes entire possession of the pasture it occupies ; 
although its roots run deep into the sub-soil, it seems deficient 
in’ capillary pewer, as it suffers fram drought. Another 
disadvantage it has is that it is subject sometimes to be badly 
érgotted, a very serious matter for the flock or herd. 
Its surface roots are of a creeping nature, therefore it will, 
under favourable circumstances, spread in a most alarming 
manner, and, being a gross feeder, it exhausts the soil to 
the detriment of other and better plants, hence it should never 
be used except on boggy peaty sloughs. This warning is 
perhaps unnecessary, as to procure the seed is next to an 
impossibility, and the seed which is sold as ftorin seed is, we 
have good reason to believe, almost invariably something 
else. ; 
The only way, apparently, to obtain fiorin is to take stools 
of the grass itself, dividing them and planting them out in 
September—during moist weather for preference. 
Several other varieties produce seed so nearly in appearancé 
to Agrostis alba that few botanists can detect the difference, 
but the plants when grown Will bé found to vary considerably. 
