SUBTROPICAL GARDEN. 



221 



graceful too ; but I saw female plants associated with males 

 for the first time in the Jardin des Plantes_, and since then 

 I have a higher opinion of the species. The female plant 

 remains green much longer than the male, and being pro- 

 fusely laden with fruit,, each shoot droops and the whole 

 plant improves in aspect. It must not be forgotten in any 

 selection of hardy plants of free growth and imposing 

 aspect. From seed will probably be found the best way to 

 raise it, and then one would be pretty sure of securing 

 plants of both sexes. 



Elymus arenarius. — This wild British grass — a strong- 

 rooting and most distinct-looking herb — is capable of adding 

 a striking feature to the garden here and there, and should 

 be quickly introduced to civilization. Planted a short dis- 

 tance away from the margin of a shrubbery, or on a bank 

 on the grass, and allowed to have its own way in deep soil, 

 it makes a most striking object. In short, it deserves to 

 rank fourth among really hardy big grasses, the Pampas 

 and the two Arundos alone preceding it. I am not quite 

 certain that it is not more useful than the Arundo, being 

 hardy in all parts of these islands. In very good soil 

 it will grow four feet high, and as it is for the leaves we 

 should cultivate it, if the flowers are removed they will be 

 no loss. It is found frequently on our shores, but more 

 abundantly in the north than in the south. The variety 

 called geniculatus, which has the spike pendulous, is also 

 worthy of culture, and in its case the flowers may prove worth 

 preserving. It may possibly be useful for covert, and is 

 certainly so for rough spots in the pleasure ground and in 

 semi-wild places. 



The Ferulas. — I wish it were not necessary to write in 

 praise of such very fine plants as these, so noble in aspect 

 and beautiful in leaf. If you grow 2000 kinds of herbaceous 

 plants, the first things that show clearly above the ground 

 in the very dawn of spring (even in J anuary) are their deep 

 green and most elegant leaves. In good garden soil they 

 look like masses of Leptopteris superba, that most exquisite 

 of ferns. Their chief charm will probably be found to 

 consist in their furnishing masses of the freshest green and 



