76 THE FLOEAL WORLD AND QAEDEN GUIDE. 



Mr. George Sinclair, a famous student and cultivator of grasses, and 

 author of the " Hortus Gramineus "VYoburnensis," one of our best works 

 on profitable grasses. Mr. Sinclair had a grass garden of his own at liew 

 Cross, Avhere he gi'ew pasture grasses on a large scale, and acted as one of 

 the pioneers in the establishment of the modern improvements in agricul- 

 ture. This was laid out in a similar manner to the one at Woburn, the 

 grasses being cultivated in square plots, separated from each other by 

 paths of sand, with a broad walk round the plot, and a boundary of roses 

 and hornbeam. Tanks for aquatic grasses and an inner border for forage 

 plants were added, so as to completely represent the interests of the 

 grazier, gardener, and the student of botany. One of the best trade col- 

 lections of the present day is that on the trial ground of Messrs. Sutton 

 and Sons, of Eeaduig, where about 150 of the most useful species and 

 varieties may be seen in bloom at their respective seasons. 



The grass garden at Kew is the best and most easily accessible for the 

 botanists of London ; and it has now attained to such completeness, that 

 it constitutes a grand Sorfus Gramine^is for all puqjoses of reference and 

 comparison, the species being carefully named and arranged in botanical 

 , order. Similar gardens are needed at all the popular out-door establish- 

 ments which profess to combine the means of instruction Avith those of 

 recreation and amusement ; and at such a place as the Crystal Palace 

 a Garden of this Ivind could well be combined with rock and water 

 scenes for the display of tlie principal ornamental species, including the 

 Tussock, the Pampas, the Sorghum, the hardy Eamboo, species of Zea, 

 and such of the tree grasses as are capable of bearing the open air of 

 Britain during the summer, and of these the noble Arundo donax of Italy 

 would make a conspicuous feature. At the tropical end of the nave the 

 specimens of rice, and other tropical grasses, and the papyrus, and others 

 of the sedges, add some very distinct and pleasing outlines to those aftbrded 

 by the ferns and the magnificent tropical palms in the adjoining borders. 

 The formation of a picturesque scene devoted to ornamental grasses, with 

 small detached laAvns formed of various mixtures or pure grasses, and a 

 proper grass garden on the "Woburn plan, might well be carried out in the 

 new venture at Muswell Hill, and to no one could the task of designing 

 and planting be better entrusted than to Mr. Spencer, who has long been 

 busy in preparing the plans for the ground. 



Private students of botany cannot proceed on such a scale ; but a very 

 small space devoted to grasses in an amateur's garden would be productive 

 of much pleasure, and incapable of exhaustion as to the amount of know- 

 ledge to be derived from it. Suppose a rockery and dell with water, 

 designed to form an agreeable summer retreat, with a shady bower and a 

 few elegant appurtenances in the shape of rustic vases and ti-ee-stumps, to 

 be formed in a wilderness or shrubbery, or in a remote part of any ordinaiy 

 small garden, from which it might be fenced off with a line of clipped 

 Tew or Arbor vita). Here would be found sites for an immense ninnber of 

 grasses, all of which group well with ferns, and each species would have 

 a site appropriate to it, and a prepared soil introduced at the time of 

 planting. For species that are not sutfieiently ornamental for such a spot, 

 a narrow border would suffice ; and the best way to grow them would be 

 in small patches, just as we are in the habit of sowing annuals. The 

 narroAVTiess of the limits of such a grassery would be compensated by an 

 annual or biennial change of sorts. As they came into flower, good culms 

 and spikelets could be gathered and dried for the Hortus siccus, and the 



