THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



267 



arid the best way to do it is to pot all 

 the pieces separately in small pots in 

 very sandy soil, and when the pots 

 are full of roots to plant them out in 

 the open ground. I found only one 

 female plant among hundreds at Bat- 

 tersea Park last year, and I begged of 

 Mr. Gibson, the able manager there, 

 to break it up and improve his collec- 

 tion thereby, and he promised he 

 would do it. We shall see. 



Elymus Arenarius glauceseens is, 

 generally speaking, the most use- 

 ful of all the ornamental grasses. 

 It is a weed on the east coast 

 of Britain, between Berwick and 

 Newcastle (perhaps elsewhere), and is 

 nevertheless almost unknown in gar- 

 dens. I have had the pleasure of 

 supplying plants to my friend Mr. 

 Gibson aforesaid, and to Mr. Prestoe 

 of Victoria Park, and the public are 

 likely therefore to see much of it 

 in time to come. It grows two feet 

 high, and is rather stiff in habit, yet 

 not wanting in true grassy grace. It 

 has a bold, robust habit, and one of 

 its chief beauties is its peculiar 

 greyish blue colour — that is to say, it 

 is decidedly glaucous. I had my 

 first plant of it eleven years ago, 

 from Mr. B. S. Williams, of Victoria 

 Nursery, Holloway, who, as the trade 

 term it, first " sent it out," but when 

 on my way to the Edinburgh Fruit 

 Show, in company with Mr. Williams, 

 Mr. Laing, Mr. Bester, and other 

 " great horticulturists," we all shouted 

 with joy to see it growing in thickets 

 on the bold coast line after we passed 

 Berwick-on-Tweed. You know, per- 

 haps, that in Iceland and elsewhere 

 in hyperborean regions it is one of 

 the most important cereals, and fur- 

 nishes an excellent bread. I never 

 saw it fruit until I grew it in pots, 

 and so compelled it to become fertile. 

 Then it produced fine spikes of fruit 

 like barley, and I got good specimens 

 for my herbarium. It spreads fast, 

 is awfully hardy and long lived, pre- 

 fers a poor, sandy soil, but will grow 

 " anywhere." 



Arundo conspicua is a new grass, 

 the history of which I am not ac- 

 quainted with. I had my first plant 

 of it from Mr. Stafford, nurseryman, 

 of Hyde, near Manchester. In habit 



it resembles the pampas grass, but it 

 is coarser — that is to say, the leaves 

 are broader ; otherwise the growth in 

 the same rich fountain-like style. It 

 has been described in some of the 

 journals, by those wretched writers 

 who guess at things, as tender, but it 

 cannot be so, as my plants have borne 

 two winters at Stoke Newington in a 

 most exposed position, and if they 

 will stand it there, I think them 

 hardy enough for the northernmost 

 parts of Norway. And here, while I 

 think of it, let me tell you how I 

 have killed a whole series of pampas 

 grasses. I would always have a 

 pampas growing in a great tree root 

 beside my summer-house, and nature 

 always insisted on its dying during 

 winter. Do you know why ? I will 

 tell you. Where it stood, there was 

 a drip all winter from the eaves 

 of the house, and the drip killed it. 

 Learn therefore, as I do, the im- 

 portance of a dry position ; I am 

 reminded of the fact because I lost 

 one of my first plant of Arundo con- 

 spicua the same way. Perhaps I 

 ought here to say that I never begin 

 growing a new plant with one spe- 

 cimen only. I always secure two, 

 either by dividing the original, or by 

 cuttings, etc., etc. I always begin the 

 cultivation by multiplying ; having 

 then two, three, or more, I plant 

 them, pot them, etc., etc., as may be 

 desirable, and wait for the result. 

 You do the same, and your horti- 

 cultural experiments will be tenfold 

 more delightful than by the risky 

 method of dealing with one example 

 of any plant. 



Stipa pennata grows superbly on 

 a dry, sandy bank in a part of my 

 fernery. What grace, what delicacy, 

 what is there in the vegetable king- 

 dom to equal it for fairy-like ele- 

 gance ? Beware ! In the seed cata- 

 logues you will see that seed is offered. 

 True, seed is offered. Now I never 

 could get a seed to germinate. I 

 have asked hundreds of the most 

 expert cultivators about it, and all 

 agreed except one, that seed was no 

 use ; " nobody could get it up." 

 That one was of course a madman, 

 and upon my word I forget now who 

 it was. It might have been Mr. 



