47 



should be protected by branches, litter, or dry place on the lawn or the kept garden this is 

 fern, duringsevere weather. Late spring is the high enough, and its beauty is far more last- 

 best time for planting or dividing old plants ; ing than that of the older, tall-growing kinds, 

 all are much better also for being cut in rather which are best used for more distant effect and 

 closely when risk of frost is over. To see the grouping. 



Pampas Grass at its best the ground should be The rosy form of Pampas Grass is still rare 

 well prepared before planting, for theroots are j in English gardens, though far commoner in 

 thick and run deep, and a fine 

 mass should not be disturbed for 

 many years. A deep soil, well 

 enriched with rotten manure, 

 does away also with much of 

 the need for watering, even in 

 dry ground such as favours a 

 graceful habit and freedom of 

 flower. In damp soils the growth 

 becomes rank, the plumes often 

 scanty and liable to discolour, 

 easily broken by wind, and the 

 whole plant less hardy. The 

 plants are male and female, and 

 vary in beauty and in habit 

 with their sex ; with a little care 

 it is not difficult to tell them 

 apart, and for beauty in the 

 flower garden the female should 

 be preferred. Though less vi- 

 gorous in growth, its habit is 

 more graceful, the leaves shorter 

 and arching prettily on all sides, 

 with a more compact base ; it 

 comes sooner to flower, while 

 its plumes are more handsome, 

 free of stamens, and last better 

 when dried. The male plant, 

 being a strong grower, does 

 very well for distant effect such 

 as upon exposed banks in the 

 rougher parts of the pleasure 

 groundsornear water. Its leaves 

 are broader with a prominent 

 whitish midrib, a rougher ap- 

 pearance, and a less refined out- 

 line, often broken by lateral 

 growths or by splitting of the base into separate 

 tufts. A female plant of one of the compact 

 sorts now grown, well planted in deep, rich 

 soil, in an open butshelteredspot,soon becomes 

 a handsome object, with its dense arching 

 leaves as a fountain of verdure, crowned in 

 early autumn with its many shafts of flower, 

 the whole from 4 to 5 feet in height. For a 



France, where most or the named kinds have 

 been raised. It comes from Ecuador and the 

 region of the great peaks of the Andes, being 

 found in company with the white kind at a 

 height of 6,000 to 10,000 feet. As seen in gar- 

 dens the plant varies much in merit, but is 

 no less variable in its native uplands, where, 

 according to Andre, good plants are rare, and 



