THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GTJIDE, 75 



farmer, a gardener, or an amateur student of horticnltnral botany, and it 

 will be a rare chance if either of the three can tell you how many species of 

 grasses there are in the turf, or anything respecting their habits and his- 

 tory. Yet to the farmer it is a matter of serious moment to know which 

 are the grasses that produce the earliest crops of grass, which the heaviest 

 and most fattening, which make the best hay, and how far the most produc- 

 tive are adapted to various soils and climates. Siich men as Mechi, 

 Huxtable, Buckman, or Morton, would, by a skilful choice of grasses, as to 

 t"heir productive and other qualities, obtain from a given piece of land 

 double or treble the return a farmer of the old school would be contented 

 with ; for the advance party in agriculture have accomplished that long- 

 talked-of boon of making two blades of grass grow where but one grew 

 before. But the amateur gardener has, or should have, as much concern 

 in the grasses as any, seeing that they are fast taking places in our gardens 

 as embeRishments ; and we find as much to be proud of in our clumps d" 

 Oyneriuin, Arunclo, Dactylis, Holcus, Zea, and Stipa pennata, as in any of the 

 old-established garden flowers ; and when we come to make them objects ol 

 careful botanical study, we shall find it possible to introduce a vast numbei 

 of others which possess the highest value as decorative objects for rockeries, 

 water scenes, and border and pot cultiu'e. Ferns and variegated foliage 

 plants have become fashionable subjects of culture : why should not also the 

 grasses, which present us with a verj- distinct class of the most graceful 

 outlines, a variety of agreeable tones of verdure, occasionally gaily-painted 

 blossoms, and striped and variegated leaves ? The variegated PTialarh 

 aruniinacca; popularly knoAvn as ribbon grass, ladies' -tresses, and other 

 homely names, is one of the most beautiful variegated- leaved plants we have, 

 that grows in almost any kind of soil, and increases rapidly into huge 

 tufts crowned with silvery panicles, little less inferior, just before they are 

 in full bloom, to the pampas grass itself, which has just been described as 

 the queen of the family. 



What we want as an incentive to the study of grasses, is a good grass 

 garden in some place of popular resort. We Avould have the promoters of 

 people's parks, public pleasure-grounds, and places of open-air recreation 

 generally, give heed to the necessity for facilitating the means of acquiring 

 knowledge of the tribe of plants on which we are most directly dependent 

 for soiu'ces of wealth and comfort, and for the majority of oiir choicest 

 worldly pleasures. At the nurseries where agricultural seeds are raised, 

 the grass garden is usually an important feature ; meadow and pastiu'e 

 grasses are grown in separate breadths, to test their relative qualities and 

 strength, as well as for saving seed unmixed with weeds and other grasses. 

 One of the very first of these grass gardens was that formed at Woburn, 

 by the Duke of Bedford, and known as the Hortus Gramineus. This was 

 laid out as a pleasiu-e-grormd, with gravel walks two feet nine inches 

 wide, with spaces on each side of two feet square, each enclosed by cast-iron 

 frames. The garden contained 242 of these two-feet plots, which allowed 

 of the cultivation, in separate square patches, of 242 species of grasses. Eound 

 the garden was a three-feet walk, with exterior border for forage plants, 

 such as vetches, saintfoin, clover, lucern, etc., which are usually called 

 " grasses"' in farming language, though widely separated from the grasses 

 proper in all that concerns their structure and character. A hedge of 

 hornbeam separated this garden from the other parts of the groimds; and 

 the Duke honoured the entrance to it by a beautiful Grecian structxu-e, 

 designed by J. Wyattville, Esq. The designer of the Wobiun garden was 



