ORNAMENTAL GRASSES. 81 



The Isolepis gracilis has somewhat the same habit, but 

 is more beautiful. But it is too delicate to endure the 

 winter, and can only be reared in heat, and then planted 

 out, for it can bear no frost. 



There is a fine genus of grasses described by Muhlen- 

 berg as natives of Ohio and Susquehanna, called Uniola. 

 One of them is now cultivated in our gardens (U. lati- 

 folia), and resembles a large Bromus. According to 

 Mr. Lowe, the name is given on account of the union of 

 the glumes. The rachis is branched, and the branches 

 erect. The leaves are plain, glossy, and lanceolate, 

 downy at the base ; the sheaths are glossy and striated ; 

 the ligules shortened, and obscurely notched. Panicle 

 branched, branches triangular, and situated in pairs. 

 The anthers are yellow, three in number, the pistils two, 

 bright red. It flowers in August, and grows four feet high. 



The Giant Quaking Grass (Briza maxima) is as fami- 

 liar in old-fashioned gardens as the Feather-grass and 

 Ribbon-grass. It is an annual, but very easily raised 

 from seed, and very effective either as a border-plant or 

 in a bouquet. The leaves spring in a cluster from the 

 crown of the root, they are half an inch broad, but soon 

 begin to taper, and seldom exceed three or four inches 

 in length. They are smooth in texture, and of a milky - 

 green colour; their edges turn in. The culm is very 

 slender, from one and a half to two feet high, round, and 

 slightly furrowed, with four or five joints. The panicle 

 is large and loose, the spikelets large, and so heavy that 

 they weigh down the slender branches of the rachis. 

 "When ripe they are of a very pale straw-colour with 

 silvery lustre, generally tipped with purple. Old Gerarde 

 calls it " Pearl-grass," or " Garden Quakers." It is a 

 native of the South of Europe. 



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