108 JOURNAL OY THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



style so much admired in the colonial ferns, until the abundance of 

 arching foliage resembles the graceful streams of a fountain. From the 

 centre of this group arise a number of perpendicular culms, the apices at 

 first seeming only thickened, but shortly developing a folded sheath, 

 within which rest the closely packed flower-buds ; these culms shoot up 

 with such rapidity that they have been known to grow an inch in 

 twenty-four hours, and they attain their full length of from five to seven 

 feet in September. Then the sheath opens gradually, and the inflorescence 

 emerges by degrees, at first as a closely packed head, then exhibiting its 

 complex structure of branches and buds, and by the end of October 

 developing its full glory of a spreading panicle a foot long, and numerous 

 feathery flowers, so white and glossy as to shine like silver, and so lightly 

 mounted on their slender branches that they wave and tremble with every 

 zephyr. The male plant differs in the foliage, being less graceful, and the 

 inflorescence later in opening. The latter habit unfits the plant for out- 

 door culture in Britain, as it leaves little chance of the flowers being 

 perfected before the early frost, and the culms being then full of sap are 

 unable to stand the cold and so perish before the flower can expand. The 

 best way of utilising the beauty of the male plant is to cut the unopened 

 panicles before the coming of frost. The heads should then be carefully 

 dried and the sheaths stripped off ; the young florets lying snug within 

 seem made of frosted silver, but so closely packed that they present the 

 appearance of a solid body. But when this compressed cloud of silver 

 blossoms is gently and repeatedly shaken they separate, and the true form 

 of the branching rachis soon becomes developed. Thus treated, the heads 

 which some night would have perished, leaving their latent beauty un- 

 developed and almost unsuspected, become the most lovely objects for 

 drawing-room decoration possible." 



The propagation of ornamental grasses is much the same as that of 

 other plants — that is to say, when one wants them early, as in the case of 

 annuals, it is necessary to sow in a slight heat under glass. This treat- 

 ment must be resorted to in the case of perennials in order to get some 

 flowers the same year, otherwise sowing in April or May in the open air 

 will give fine plants for flowering the following season. 



The best and most elegant of the annuals are : Agrostis laxiflora, 

 A. nebulosa, A. gracilis, Briza gracilis, B. geniculata, Eragrostis elegans, 

 E. namaqucnsis, E. papposa, Hordeum jubatum, Lagurus ovatus, Tri- 

 cholacna rosea; and the best perennial grasses are, the Gyneriums, the 

 Arundos, Apera arundinacea ; the Eulalias and the Phormiums (New 

 Zealand Flax) also may be added. A more complete list of the best 

 annuals and perennials which from time to time have been introduced 

 into this country is given at the end of this paper. Ornamental grasses, 

 like yuccas, bamboos, silver birch, and other ornamental plants and 

 shrubs, give an air of refinement and as it were the finishing touch to the 

 gardener's art, and they are quite unsurpassed on the verge of a lake 

 where such varieties are chosen as the Gyneriums, the Phormiums and 

 the Arundos, the Poas, and the new grass Glyceris aquatica varicgata ; 

 these in company with the Japanese Iris, the tall Spireas, and 

 Gunneras and other strong plants of these classes, look at their best and 

 are very attractive, and what can be prettier by the side of a rippling 



