114 On Grass Gardens, and the Interest and 



or produce obtained by many different species being intimately 

 mixed together, than can by any art or means be effected from 

 an equal space of ground, by the cultivation of any one or 

 two individual species of grass, has lately been made avail- 

 able in practice with great success in the formation of rich 

 permanent pastures, converted from tillage land, as well as 

 in that of artificial pastures of the alternate husbandry. 



But, besides the important uses above enumerated, we may 

 observe that the culms or straws of several of the grasses afford 

 a most valuable article of manufacture for bonnets, mats, and 

 of various ornamental works. The culms of several of the 

 perennial grasses afford a material which, in proper hands, may 

 be manufactured into an imitation of the Leghorn straw plait, 

 far surpassing the original, even the finest of them, in texture 

 and in durability. If the subject be properly encouraged by 

 the public, and persevered in by the manufacturers, there is 

 not a shadow of doubt but that England would become, and 

 that at no remote period, an exporter, instead of, as at present, 

 an importer of this useful and ornamental part of dress. 



The Elymus arenarius, Arundo arenaria, Festuca rubra, and 

 Poa maritima, arrest the inroads of the sea on the land ; their 

 habits or tenacity of life are such as to enable them to grow 

 and flourish on the blowing sands of the beach, which collect 

 around these plants, forming hillocks ; the Elymus arenarius, 

 being the most robust, occupies and secures the top, while 

 the Arundo arenaria secures and supports the sides, and 

 the last two species are found straggling on the level sand, 

 preparing a foundation for the latter ; the creeping Fescue I 

 have found on the beach near Skegness, with roots extending 

 six feet in length in the blowing sands. 



A consideration of these various properties and important 

 uses, peculiar to the different species of grasses, and of which 

 a slight and short mention only has now as above been made, 

 will be found to infuse itself into every botanical investigation 

 of the species, and render the cultivation of a proper collection 

 doubly interesting. 



A collection, consisting of from two to four hundred species 

 of the most interesting kinds, may be formed and kept up at 

 but little trouble and expence.* 



The Hortus Gramineus, in the gardens at Woburn Abbey, 

 belonging to the Duke of Bedford, may serve as a model for 

 forming such a compartment in a pleasure-ground as is capable 

 of affording the pleasure and instruction alluded to in the fore- 

 going observations. The spaces allotted to the proper grasses 



* Collections of several hundred species of grass seeds may be obtained 

 at Cormack, Son, and Sinclair's, 53. Regent Street, or New Cross, Surrey. 



