THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 77 



clumps destroyed to make room for fresh sorts ; and thus, if there -were 

 room for but a hundred to begin with, the annual varieties could all be 

 changed the next season, and the biennial at the second season ; and, in the 

 course of a few years, the Hortiis siccus would be stocked by an entire col- 

 lection of the British, and an immense number of foreign species and their 

 numerous varieties, and the possessor also made familiarly acquainted 

 with them throughout their whole course of growth — a fulness of know- 

 ledge rarely attained by collectors of dried j)lants. As the majority 

 of the species of Graminecc belong to the temperate zone, an English 

 garden may be made a place of culture for the chief of the grasses of 

 the entii'e world, as far as plants and seeds can be obtained for the 

 piu'pose. 



The species of grass known at the present day number far beyond 

 a thousand. Of these the British Isles claim at least a hundred and 

 fifty. The botanical characteristics of a grass are the production of cylin- 

 di'ical stems from either a bulbous or fibrous root-stock. The stems are 

 usually hollow and jointed, and in this they difter from the sedges, in 

 which the stems are solid. The leaves of grasses spring from the joints, 

 and sheathe the stem ; in the sedges the leaves grow together round the 

 stem, and form a kind of tube to enclose it. The flowers come in sj)ike- 

 lets, and consist only of the essential organs of fertility — stamens, anthers, 

 and ovary — enclosed in bracts, the two exterior of which are called glumes, 

 and the two exterior paleoi. When these bracts are highly coloured, as in 

 Agrostis seiacece, Calamagrostis lanceclata, Arena strigosa, Cgnodon dac- 

 tylon, C. sanguinalis, and Stim fennata, the species are attractive to the 

 popular eye as beautiful grasses ; but it is the form, proportions, foliation, 

 and the peculiar grace of the spikelets generally, that constitute their 

 beauties; and if we except Gyneriiim, with its gi-and panicles of glittering 

 silver, and the beautifully-marked Arundo donax versicolor, the variegated 

 Phalaris, Elymus, Arenaria glauca, Festuca glauca and variabilis, and a few 

 others prized for their snowy and golden stripes and blossoms, theii- 

 atti'actions Avill range with the same quiet order as those of the ferns, 

 many delightful shades of refreshing green and outlines unsurpassed in 

 gracefulness. 



In the natural system, as adopted by Lindley, Hogg, and the majority 

 of modern botanists, there are thirteen tribes of grasses, respecting which 

 we will say a few words, for the purpose of indicating those which 

 possess the greatest interest for the amateur cultivator and the student of 

 botany. 



Oeyze^ contains the rice-grass so extensively cultivated in the tropical 

 regions of both hemispheres. The genera of this tribe are mostly stove 

 aquatics, and very elegant objects to mingle with ferns and lilies in the 

 furnishing of heated aquaria. 



Phalare^i; includes Zea mays, or Indian corn — the " corn" mentioned in 

 Scripture as that which Jesus and his disciples gathered on the Sabbath. 

 The green cobs of maize are sweet, and, if cooked before the grains are too 

 far advanced, form an excellent table vegetable. "Well-grown plants of 

 common maize are noble garden ornaments. The following are highly 

 ornameutal members of the tribe : — Giant maize, canary-grass {P. cana- 

 nensis), reed canary-grass (P. arundinacea), and the pretty ladies'- 

 tresses, which is a variety of the same. For the stove, Coix lachryma, 

 or Job's-tears, is a noble grass, rising eight feet high, and with a similar 



