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THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GLIDE. 



sede all I have said in favour of the 

 cultivation of these graceful plants 

 by words of more energetic praise 

 than heretofore, for the more I see of 

 grasses the more I love them, and the 

 more I become convinced that if 

 amateur gardeners would take them 

 up in earnest, some very novel and 

 satisfactory effects would be produced 

 in their villa gardening. When talk- 

 ing about tameness and sameness a 

 few months ago, I said nothing about 

 the grasses; but just consider for a 

 moment, dear friends, how such grand 

 subjects as the Pampas gras.', Arundo 

 donax, Elymus glauca, and Arundo 

 conspicua would furnish means of 

 breaking through the monotony that 

 has threatened to paralyze art in villa 

 gardening. But I forgot, pardon me, 

 that some of you are not acquainted 

 with these subjects, and that it is my 

 business at this moment to direct your 

 attention to them and to say a few 

 words on the practical part of their 

 cultivation and ornamental uses. 



As to the general case of the use 

 of grasses, it is very certain that the 

 place for a collection is the fernery, 

 where, amongst masses of rock, tree 

 stumps, and half-wild scenes, and 

 especially near water, ornamental 

 grasses have almost bewitching 

 beauty ; indeed, there are but few 

 that look well on level ground, except 

 it be in a botanical garden, where 

 people will take the pains to examine 

 and compare them, and then indeed 

 their beauties are seen and appre- 

 ciated under any circumstances. Bat 

 a private garden should have none of 

 the hard features of a botanic garden; 

 we wantonly beautiful plants, and we 

 want them in positions to which by 

 their character they are adapted. In 

 botanic gardens they want all the 

 species they can clutch at, irrespective 

 of their beauty, and only botanists 

 care to explore such collections. 

 Many a time have I wandered about 

 in the herbaceous ground at the 

 Hoyal Botanic Gardens at Regent's 

 Park, in the company of my dear 

 friend, Mr. William Robinson, the 

 head of that department there, and 

 have felt how the peculiar colours and 

 characters of the best grasses are all 

 but lost in the very methodical way 



in which they are planted. In my 

 garden Elymus glaucais a magnificent 

 object on the top of a bank in the 

 fern3ry, and in various nooks about 

 the same place where tufts of it are 

 growing vigorously; but at the Bota- 

 nic Garden it has quite a common- 

 place character standing with others 

 in a flat bed, and associated with too 

 many other grasses to bring out its 

 beauty fairly. To plant many kinds 

 of grasses together is a mistake. The 

 result is monotony — in other words, 

 tameness and sameness. Mix the 

 grasses with ferns, shrubs, and large- 

 leaved herbaceous plants, and as 

 nearly as possible place them above 

 the general level, as on the shelves of 

 rockeries, or banks, or bastions, and 

 you find in their characters beauties 

 never seen before ; they afford de- 

 lights you never expected, and which 

 you never can describe. 



Pampas grass. — The queen of the 

 ornamental grasses, the giant pam- 

 pas, Gynerium argenteum, must have 

 first place in the remarks to be made 

 on ornamental species. It is one of 

 the few grasses that may be planted 

 anywhere without impropriety. It is 

 a fine subject for the decoration of a 

 lawn, but is far more glorious when 

 lifted up in the midst of rocks and 

 ferns, with which its graceful out- 

 lines harmonize most delightfully. 

 Some two or three papers on this 

 noble grass will be found in past issues 

 of the Floral Wokld, and as this 

 work never repeats itself, I must ask 

 our readers to refer back for informa- 

 tion on its history and cultivation 

 generally. I want to say here, how- 

 ever, having had about ten years' ex- 

 perience in its cultivation, that a 

 damp position is death to it in winter. 

 Give it a dry position, and it will live 

 through the severest frost, and to 

 make amends give plenty of water 

 and liquid manure while it is grow- 

 ing — say from the middle of May to 

 the middle of August. Also that the 

 female form, which is scarce, is the 

 most beautiful, and when in flower, 

 lasts the longest. Also that a plant 

 may be divided ad lib. provided each 

 separate stolon has a few root-fibres 

 attached, and the best time to do it is 

 after it has begun to grow in spring,. 



