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BRITISH GRASSES. 



On the banks of rivers and ponds this very handsome 

 pictorial grass may be constantly seen. It forms a fea- 

 ture in every landscape 

 where the painter wishes to 

 introduce graceful natural 

 objects with their reflection 

 in limpid water. Its reed- 

 like stems and broad bending 

 leaves are of themselves suf- 

 ficiently attractive, but their 

 charm is heightened when the 

 spreading panicle emerges 

 from the upper sheath, and 

 gradually unfolds its spike- 

 lets, richly tinted with violet 

 or rose, unless the absence 

 of sunshine leave the whole 

 plant of the same delicate 

 green. These welcome panicles appear in July, and the 

 seed ripens in August. 



But it is not only in its wild state that the Red Ca- 

 nary-grass is an object of admiration. The variety 

 with striped leaves, common in old-fashioned gardens, 

 was well appreciated by our grandmothers, and public 

 taste is returning to good sense on this point, and Rib- 

 bon-grass coming anew into fashion. The quaint old 

 florist Parkinson, writing in the reign of Charles II., 

 expends much notice on this variety. " The French," 

 he says, " call it ' Aiguillettes d'armes/ it being the 

 fashion of their ensign's pennons used in war, that is, 

 like unto a parti-coloured ribbon. In England they 

 call it Ladies' Laces." In Yorkshire, Warwickshire, 

 and other counties, it used to bear the homely name of 



