62 



THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



duced from Brazil, in 1848, and now 

 proved to be quite hardy in the climate 

 of Condon. This is one of the finest 

 specimen-plants for any style of garden 

 decoration, but is most in its element 

 in a cool, moist, half- wild nook, among 

 ferns and marsh plants, where it can 

 shake its silvery panicles above all the 

 rest, the mistress of an enchanted dell. 

 The appearance of a well-grown plant 

 of the Pampas grass is so extremely 

 elegant, that neither pen nor pencil 

 can do justice to it, the hard, wiry, 

 serrated leaves of seven or eight feet 

 in length, springing in a massive tuft 

 of six or eight feet through, and from 

 the centre arching over on all sides, 

 with a gracefulness truly fairy-like. 

 Its floweriug season is October, and 

 then the blossom-heads dart up like 

 lances to a height of nine or ten feet, 

 and at last bend over with huge fea- 

 thers of a dazzling, silvery whiteness, 

 each plume being from eighteen inches 

 to two feet in length. From that time 

 to the end of November, there is no 

 fern, no other grass, no palm, no 

 conifer, that, by comparison with its 

 exquisite grace and grand proportions 

 could divide with it one of its preroga- 

 tives of queendom, and if well placed 

 as to effect, a well-grown specimen is 

 worth a journey of many a mile to see. 

 If raised by seed sown in heat in March, 

 grown in a green-house till May, and 

 then planted out in loam, leaf-mould, 

 and a little old dung, in a cool, moist 

 situation, the Pampas grass will prove 

 more than worthy of the poor praise I 

 have bestowed upon it. 



Whenever Fortune takes it into her 

 fickle head to give me a week's leisure 

 and a spare shilling, I have set my 

 heart upon the formation of a grass 

 garden, in which to collect all the 

 notable species of British and foreign 

 grasses, so as to compare them side by 

 side, and, by a vindication of their beau- 

 ties, innoculate a large clique of people 

 already mad about ferns, with a grass 

 mania. I remember, some years ago, 

 wanting to hit upon something new in 

 the way of planting a rockery ; I had 

 ferns and alpines in abundance, I had 

 collections of British wild flowers, in- 

 cluding all the daintiest darlings of the 

 mountain and the moor, and I had col- 

 lections of cistusses and showy trailers, 



and was determined to have one splen- 

 did bit of rock and Avater, without the 

 help of a single flower or fern, and 

 what could I pitch upon but grasses ? 

 Briza maxima and gracilis made lovely 

 tufts between the stones at the base, 

 Stipa pennata feathered the margins of 

 the summit, Isolepis tenella made a few 

 tit-bits for summer time, for it is not 

 hardy ; and, then, sprinkled about in 

 various open positions, were Pennise- 

 tum* longistylum, Lagurus ovatus, the 

 old Arundos in plenty, JEgilops squar- 

 rossa, Lamarkia aurica, Elymus caput 

 medusa, and hystrix, two of the most 

 curious grasses you ever saw; some 

 charming sedge grasses fringed the 

 pool, and Stipa giganteav<&s one of the 

 chief features of the summit. The 

 Pampas grass (Gynerivm argenteum) 

 had not then found its way to our 

 shores ; but what a regal attitude it 

 would now assume, as the main feature 

 of such a garden ornament ! 



The newest fact of interest in regard 

 to grasses, is the suggested adoption of 

 grass as edgings. The ordinary verge 

 is a sound, effective margin to walks, 

 where a band of grass would be quite 

 in keeping, but the new style is an 

 improvement on the verge, or rather 

 quite a different and improved method 

 of edging. Two distinct grasses are 

 candidates for the honour of beating 

 dwarf-box out of the field ; and they 

 are the common sheep's fescue, Fes- 

 tuca ovina, and the uncommon Isolepis 

 gracilis, which, by the wa)', is a 

 charming grass for pot and border cul- 

 ture. For beauty, the last must stand 

 first, but for solid usefulness as an 

 edging, the first will keep its place, be- 

 cause it is thoroughly hard}', quick 

 growing, and may be had of any re- 

 spectable seedsman for almost nothing. 

 To make an edging of the fescue, it 

 is best to sow the seed in a bed, and 

 then transplant the young plants into 

 the line of the edging, putting them 

 exactly three inches apart all along. 

 The transplanting serves a double pur- 

 pose — it ensures regularity, and it en- 

 ables you to throw out any other 

 grasses which may have got mixed in 

 the seed, for the edging should be of 

 the one sort only, or all precision will 

 be lost. The growth of this grass 

 is close and tufted, there is nothin 



