137 



until my return on fiorin hay, mowed February lOtli, and 

 looking- very fine, being well saved: — when I came back, 

 iL found my butter indifferent, and that the milk had lost 

 its richness ; so I pressed the subject no farther, satisfied 

 that it was imprudent to defer mowing- until after the turn 

 of the year ; leaving it to future experiments to determine 

 how long in the preceding part of the winter we might 

 defer mowing without injury to the quality of our hay. 



Though my knowledge of the great value of fiorin was 

 the result of 7?iy own experiments, the striking features, 

 and leading qualities of this grass had not entirely escaped 

 notice; for the writers of the seventeenth century make 

 such mention of it, as might have induced agriculturists to 

 pursue the subject further, and to ascertain bi/ experiment ^ 

 if a grass of such promise ought not to be introduced into 

 cultivation, especially as both the sweetness and length of 

 the stolones had been observed, — the two properties upon 

 which the quantity and quality of its produce were likely 

 to depend. 



Mr. Stonehouse, quoted by Ray, seems the first 

 that mentions it, — it is noticed in Fuller's Worthies ; 

 Parkinson, in his Theatrum Botanicum, printed in 

 1640, particularly points out the sweetness of its stolones, 

 which, as he says, " sometimes run to twentie feet longj^ 

 while Ray makes them reach twenty-four feet. Camden 

 mentions the trailing dog-grass, which obviously must have 

 been the gramen caninum, supinum, longissimum, of Dr. 

 How ; — Morison also makes particular mention of it ; 

 audit is noticed in Merrit's Pin ax, published in 1666. 



The only writer since that century who has mentioned 

 this grass without abuse, is my friend Walter Scott, 

 who to his exquisite poetical talent, joins accurate obser- 

 vation, and careful study of Nature. 



