312 GRAMINACE^E. 



the extent of a few of the annual species, for the sake of the 

 grace which their flowers lend to bouquets of everlasting and 

 other flowers in the decoration of rooms in winter; and they are 

 gro^^Tl in beds set apart for this purpose, as indeed they should 

 be ; for the necessity for cutting and picking them irregularly, in 

 order to have them preserved in the best condition for the pur- 

 pose in view, is incompatible with that order and tidiness which 

 should prevail in beds or borders devoted to an-angements for 

 'effect. But the majority of the annual species are not well fitted 

 for associating with other plants in groups for effect, on account 

 of their very generally brief season — most of them flower and 

 are over in two or three months from the time of sowing. The 

 perennial grasses, like most other perennial plants, are slower 

 in arriving at, and continue longer in, the beauty of their maturity ; 

 and most of them, from early summer till late autumn, remain in 

 a state of graceful attractiveness of foliage or flower, or both 

 combined. One or two varieties of common field-grasses, with 

 variegated or glaucous foliage, have been used in the flower- 

 garden along with bedding plants; and Gynerium argciiteiim has 

 occasionally been used in flower-gardening and for outstanding 

 objects and groups about lawns and the margins of water; but 

 there has been no very general adoption of the grace of the 

 grasses along vrith the gay colours of the common occupants of 

 the flower-garden. They are very easily cultivated, growing for 

 the most part well in any good garden-soil, and none requiring 

 peculiar soil or treatment are recommended here. They may 

 be raised from seed ; and as it is generally easily obtainable, that 

 means is recommended as the best, especially in the case of 

 GyneriimidLnd other large grasses, which, when grown in light dry 

 soils, are peculiarly difficult to divide successfully. The seed 

 is best sowTi in small pots in a cold frame, and the plants, as 

 soon as they are fit to handle, should be pricked off into 

 sheltered nursing-beds ; or, if circumstances admit of it, they may 

 be kept under glass in cold frames, or be pricked out in a 

 spent hotbed. The smaller perennial grasses and the variegated 

 kinds may be propagated by division without any difficulty; and 

 in the case of the latter, it is necessary to resort to this means 

 in order to insure continuance of the variegation. Such species 

 as Gynerium argenteum, A?'imdo cofispiaca, and A. Dofiax, de- 

 light in delugings of water during summer; but in the northern 

 parts of Britain they require to be kept very dry during winter; 

 and I have found them all improved in vigour, and less liable 

 to become worn out in the centre of the tufts, by being annually 

 lifted and replanted in fresh soil. The best time for doing this 

 is after a little growth is made in spring, and that is also the 



