MEMOIR 



ON THE 



CULTIVATION OF FIORIN GRASS. 



Though I have already given many desultory publica- 

 tions to the world, on the subject of fiorin yrass, and 

 although the value of my discovery be now well esta- 

 blished and admitted ; I am induced, by the acquisition of 

 a new pupil of exalted rank, His Imperial Highness 

 THE Archduke John of Austria, to resume my pen, 

 and, for his information, to epitomise the most important 

 of them, and to give an account of the mode in which I 

 became acquainted with a vegetable, that, notwithstanding 

 its power of supplying man with the most important 

 article in rural oeconomy. Hay of the best quality, and 

 in treble -the quantity yielded by any other grass, had for 

 many ages escaped the attention of agriculturists. 



Previous to the request from this eminent personage, 

 (communicated to me by Sir Thomas Ackland) to 

 transmit to him Fiorin seed, roots, and stolones, with in- 

 structions how they were to be managed ; I had of late 

 thought it incumbent on me, before I give up this favourite 

 subject, (which must be very soon) to detail the progress 

 of my discoveries; for, in the course of the eleven years 

 L 



