72 



THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



as to the aspect in which it is grown. At 

 the Crystal Palace, it forms a striking fea- 

 ture fur Hi'/ fronts of shrubberies ; at Kew, 

 it towers up on the margin of the lake, a 

 true queen of the green sward; and in pri- 

 vate gardens everywhere it has its place — 

 in the rockery, the rootery, and beside the 

 fish-pond. 



Like some of our commonest English 

 grasses, it will grow anywhere, no matter 

 Avbat the nature of the soil or climate, but 

 there will be a vast difference in the re- 

 spective luxuriance and beauty of plants 

 grown under circumstances congenial to 

 the habit of the species, and those grown 

 under difficulties. In a dry, barren sand 

 it will throw up its elegant tufts of green, 

 but never attain to its proper stately di- 

 mensions, and in a hot aspect the colour 

 of the foliage will be injured during the 

 latter portions of the summer season. To 

 grow it well it requires a deep, moist 

 loam, heavily enriched with rotten manure 

 and leaf-mould, and, during its season of 

 vigorous growth — from the end of May to 

 the end of September — it should be fre- 

 quently supplied with weak liquid-manure. 

 lis proper home is beside the rapid and 

 frequently-swollen streams of the South 

 American Pampas, where it forms dense 

 jungles, through which it is impossible to 

 pass, except by cutting a way through, 

 owing to the serrated character of the 

 margins of its wavy leaves. 



The best season to turn out small plants 

 from pots is from April to the end of May. 

 A hole, three feet deep and four feet wide, 

 should be made. Intothis should be thrown 

 a mixture of rotten dung, leaf-mould, and 

 fat loam, in about equal proportions, till 

 the hole is filled up to within eighteen 

 inches of the surface. It should then be 

 filled up with loam and leaf-mould only, 

 and the plant should be turned out in the 

 centre, and firmly made up with the soil. 

 A few good waterings will cause the roots 

 to strike out into the compost, and after 

 that the plant will prosper with no other 

 attention than occasional supplies of mois- 

 ture. The soil in which it is planted will 

 probably sink in the course of a few weeks, 

 when it should be liberally mulched with 

 short dung only, half- rotten, the foliage of 

 the plant being gathered up and tied to a 

 stake when the dung is laid down, in order 

 that none of the leaves may be covered. 

 The soil around the plant should on no 

 account be elevated above the surrounding 

 surface ; on the contrary, it should be 

 below that surface, as in the case of an 

 American bed, in order to retain as much 

 as possible the heavy summer rains. Es- 



tablished plants may be tiken up and re- 

 planted with perfect safety any time from 

 December to April. We have transplanted 

 large specimens during winter for three 

 seasons past, and never lost one, though 

 very severe frosts followed the transplant- 

 ing. If the plants were cut over close to 

 the ground at the time of such transplant- 

 ing, they would probably perish; therefore 

 let the old foliage remain. It will wither 

 and form a protecting screen to the crown 

 of the plant, and may be cut away carefully 

 as soon as the new spring growth appears. 

 As the seeds of this plant arc now offered 

 through the ordinary trade channels, we 

 advise those who wish to plant in any 

 quantity among their shrubberies and col- 

 lections of ferns and grasses, to raise a 

 stock from seed. It may be sown in any 

 of the ordinary line composts used lor 

 spring seeds, and is best started with a 

 gentle bottom-heat, the plants to be kept 

 under glass in a cool house till large 

 enough to be potted singly in thumb-pots, 

 and then into sixties, after which they 

 should be removed to a cold frame, have 

 plenty of air, and be shaded from mid-day 

 sun. Contrary to general expectation, the 

 pampas grass has a very noble appearance 

 hi the centre of a lawn, or, indeed, any- 

 where standing clear of other objects on a 

 surface of turf. Flower-gardens laid out 

 on turf would in most cases derive ad- 

 ditional interest by the use of the pampas 

 grass for centre and corner pieces, and in 

 divisional lines where a tuft-like mass 

 would have the effect of connecting several 

 sets of colours into one whole. We could 

 give measurements of many fine specimens 

 that have come under our own observation 

 during the last three years. We saw one 

 plant last autumn which had a circumfe- 

 rence of twenty-six feet, and twenty spikes 

 of bloom twenty feet high. The bloom- 

 spikes rarely exceed twelve feet, but in 

 rich soils, on the margins of lakes and in 

 the partial shade of trees, they rise higher, 

 and the bloom is much more luxuriant. 

 We have seen as many as fifty spikes of 

 bloom on a plant so circumstanced. Where 

 it is intended to plant in very conspicuous 

 positions, it i3 well to endeavour to get 

 female plants, as they have a much more 

 noble appearance than the males when in 

 bloom. The noble specimen figured in 

 illustration of this article is in the nursery 

 of Messrs. Sutton, of Reading, and the 

 representation is from a photograph taken 

 last autumn, when the plant was in the 

 highest perfection and loaded with nearly 

 forty of its silvery plumes. Messrs. Sutton 

 have a large stock of seed. 



