462 
Lo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
EN looking into your Magazine, Vol. 
XXVIII. May 1, 1809, page 378, I 
observe, that Dr. William Richardson 
has called the attention of the public, by 
_mentioning the Fiorin Grass, As the 
name Fiorin appeared strange to me, and 
Knowing that Linnezus had no such name 
in his Genera Plantarum, I tried to find 
it in Lee’s Genera rejected, and found it 
not there ; I examined Berkenhout’s two 
volumes on Botany, but found it was not 
there; 1 examined Hull’s Flora, found 
no such name there; I went to Light- 
foot’s Erse names, but no such name 
there; if you know the English name, or 
which would be better, the generic and 
specificname, or both, it might be of some 
use to the public, unless Dr. Richardson 
wishes to have the orders sent him for 
seed or plants of the Fiorin Grass. I 
cannot conceive what is his reason for 
writing in an unknown tongue, for I have 
met none that know it by that name;. 
but if the proper name was known, per- 
haps Lightfoot may have seen it in his 
tour through Seotland, which does him 
much crédit; bat, indeed, it might es- 
ape his notice, as the Cocblearia Armo- 
rica did, which he says, in his Appendix, 
page 1136, is mentioned asanative of Scot- 
Jand, by Sibbald, but che plaee not named, 
nor have we heard it has been found in a 
wild state since; I ftoundit growing in great 
plenty above Hutton Bay, parish of Orphir, 
Orkney, and have heard of no Botanist 
taking notice of it before. You may, if 
you think it worth while, communicate to 
the public, that the Lotus Horniculatus 
(Bird-foot ‘Trefoil) is an excellent food 
for cattle, and a hardy plant, growing 
.on both high and low situations, and on 
almost every soil, and would turn out to 
good account, if cultivated, and the 
seed is easily got. 
And as Hemp and Flax (Lint) is now 
very high-priced, if the public would turn 
their attention to the Urtica Dhiocia 
{common nettle), an excellent hemp 
might be obtained from it, by cutting it 
just before the seed is ripe, and steeping 
lt in water, as they do hemp or flax, and 
manufacturing it the same way: the root 
of the plant is esteemed to be diuretic, 
and the roots boiled with alum will dye 
yarn a yellow colour. Itis likewise used 
by making a strong decoction of the 
young plant, and salt put to it, and bot- 
tled up, which will coagulate milk, and 
make it very agreeable ; by which means 
wuery concerning Fiorin Grass. 
[ Dec. f,; 
that plant, which is an obnoxious weed, 
might be turned to good account. 
I somewhere read of yarn and cloth 
being made from bean-halm, but I never 
tried it; but the nettles have, If this is 
worth the publishing in your useful Ma- 
gazine, you will much oblige, 
Dumbarton, “Your’s, &c. 
Sept, 22, 1809. HG. 
EE 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
An account of the MinenaLocy of the 
SOUTH-WEST PART Of STAFFORDSHIRE, 
Abridged by JAMES KIER, ESQ. F.R.S. 
(Concluded from page 387 of this volume. } 
Of Rowley Hills. 
HESE mountains, twelve in num- 
ber,* extend from Dudley in a 
‘south-east direction, to the parish of 
ale’s Owen, where they terminate. 
They consist, as-far as can be seen, of a 
peculiar dark bluish gray stone, called 
Rowley Rag, and of a reddish yellow, 
and sumetimes bluish coarse elay, called 
Roach, without any seusible admixture 
of saad, lime-stone, or other earth. The 
stone, or rag, when dug for mending 
roads, and some time exposed to air and 
Moisture, decomposes into a_ reddish 
powder, and-in the hills and fields at the 
bottom of the hills, under the turf and 
soil, are to be found great quantities of 
picces of rag, buried in this coarse roachy 
clay, which pieces are more or less de- 
composed, according to their thickness, 
or the time they have lain; some a quar- 
ter of an inch into their substance, and 
some thin pieces so completely destroy. 
~ed, that it can be barely seen that they 
have been rag. It appears to me, 
that this coarse clay, which abounds in 
such quantities in the hills and adjoining 
plains, 1s nothing but decomposed rag- 
stone. The stone, from its analysis, and 
external properties, is of the kind called 
asalies, or Trapp. It is of large masses 
in the mountains, of a quadrilateral form, 
with perpendicular and horizontal joints, 
or cracks, stareing on their edges, and 
-generally inclined from south-west to 
north-east, as I have been informed. 
This position, and these joints, give the 
resemblance of a ladder, whence this 
‘kind of stone has received the name of 
* Their names beginning with those. 
nearest Dudley, are Corney, Tansley, Base, 
Ceoke’s Rough, Ash, or Coxe’s Rough, 
Turner’s Pearl, Hailstone, Truimins, Row- 
ley, and Whitworth. 
| Lrepps 
