SUBTROPICAL GARDEN. 223 



and more solid ground, so to speak, near large rockwork or 

 rootwork, they would of course prove grand. The Hera- 

 cleums, so often recommended in garden literature for 

 planting near water, &c, are mere coarse rags compared to 

 the Ferulas, while the Ferulas may he used in the places 

 recommended for Heracleums. We may look forward to 

 the day when a far greater variety of form will be seen in 

 English gardens than is at present observable, and these 

 Ferulas are thoroughly well worth growing for their superb 

 spring and early summer effect. The best species are 

 F. communis, tingitana, and neapolitana. Probably a few 

 others, including sulcata, ferulago, and glauca, may with 

 advantage be added where variety is sought, but the effect 

 of any of the first three cannot be surpassed. Among 

 " aspects of vegetation" which we may enjoy in these cold 

 climes, nothing equals that of their grand leaves, pushing 

 up with the snowdrop. In semi-wild spots, where spring 

 flowers abound, it will prove a most tasteful and satisfac- 

 tory plan to drop a Ferula here and there in a sunny spot, 

 and leave it to nature and its own good constitution ever 

 afterwards. 



Gynerium argenteum (the Pampas Grass). — This is so 

 well known to the reader that there is no excuse for naming 

 it here, except the opportunity to say a few words as to the 

 splendid use we may make of it in the branch of gardening 

 we are now discussing. It is to the Dublin Botanic 

 Gardens we owe the introduction of this noble plant, now 

 much grown in every country where ornamental gardening 

 is pursued. It really deserves as much attention as any 

 plant in cultivation, and yet how rarely is any thorough 

 preparation made for its perfect development. A paltry 

 class of tender plants may cost more labour and time in 

 the course of a few months than would suffice to plant a 

 field of the Pampas grass, yet such a glorious thing as this 

 may be put in with a barrowful of mould to start on a bad 

 soil, and then perhaps planted by the water or some other 

 secondary spot called its "proper place.-" "What is there 

 growing in garden or in wild more nobly distinct and 

 beautiful than the great silvery plumes of this plant waving 



