247 
PARK AND CEMETERY 
Garden Plants — Their Geography — CXI. Graminales 
The Zea, Phalaris, and Bambusa Alliance. 
This last group of flowering plants contains 13 
Tribes, 327 Genera and 3,500 species, or thereabouts, 
and the individuals are so widely dispersed naturally, 
and by cultivation, that they probably constitute 8/10 
or 9/10 of all the plants on the earth. They furnish 
the bulk of forage for cattle, most of the grain foods, 
and, in the tropics, the bamboos almost rival palms in 
the multiplicity of their uses. The humbler grasses 
are the basis of the pastoral style of gardening. 
They are tropical, sub-tropical, warm and cold, tem- 
perate (and even arctic), annual and perennial herbs, 
bog-herbs, or, rarely, fresh water aquatics. In the 
tropics many Bambuseae are tree-like in stature, reach- 
ing to 60, 70, or more feet high. The stems are 
rounded, hollow and jointed, the leaves simple and 
parallel veined, and the well-known spiked or panicled 
wind fertilized flowers, have the organs of reproduction 
accompanied by variously arranged chaffy glumes and 
scales, instead of sepals and petals. The seeds are 
desirous of making a feature of the group will find a 
great variety of annual and perennial kinds to choose 
from. 
Zea Mays “Indian Corn” is monotypic, and although 
it has not seemingly been found in a wild state, it is 
without doubt American, for although Chinese Ency- 
clopaedias contain descriptions and even drawings of 
the plant, the date of these is subsequent to the arrival 
of the Portuguese in the East. There are several orna- 
mental forms. 
Coix, “Job’s tears,” has 3 or 4 species, natives of 
warm regions, sometimes employed during the sum- 
mer. 
Miscanthus has 6 species from Eastern Asia, the 
Malay Archipelago and South Africa. The species 
known as Eulalia are among the most ornamental of 
the hardy grasses. 
Saccharmn, “sugar cane,” is in 12 sub-tropical and 
tropical species. S. Aegypticum, an Algerian species. 
ARl’NDO DONAX. ARUNDINARIA JAPONICA. MISCANTHUS JAPONICA. 
often farinaceous and highly nutritious, while such 
as rice, maize (corn), wheat, rye, oats, barley, millets, 
some of the bamboos, and several smaller grasses pro- 
vide the staff of life to the most of mankind. It is re- 
markable that several of these grains are unknown 
in a wild state. 
Ornamentally, the most extensive uses of grasses 
are in the formation of the grazed parks and mowed 
lawns of the moist, equable, sub-tropical and warm, 
temperate regions, where they maintain a verdurous 
carpet of growth throughout the year. In most parts 
of North America the lawn growths are less satisfac- 
tory and remain green only for periods ranging from 
three to seven months. In the drier regions species of 
Cynodon, Stenotaphrum and a few others can be main- 
tained in good order only by frequent watering or irri- 
gation. 
A limited number of the larger and more showy 
grasses are used for purposes of decoration, but anyone 
Am. Florist. 
with silvery plumes, is used in South European gar- 
dens for ornamental purposes. 
Erianthiis has 17 species in tropical regions, and in 
Japan, China, Southern Europe and North America. 
E. Ravennae, one of the South European kinds, is one 
of the hardiest large grasses for the Northern States. 
Andropogon, including the “lem.on grass” of the East 
Indian mountains, has 200 species, widely distributed 
over the warmer parts of Asia, Europe and North 
America- — where, however, a few species extend well 
northward. The “lemon grass” is a close rival of the 
pampas grass and varies similarly in the color of its 
plumes. It is probably hardy in the frostless regions. 
Panicum is a large genus of perhaps 300 species. 
They are specially abundant in warm countries. Those 
most sought for ornament are the broad-leaved species, 
and the forms with variegated foliage, which are very 
handsome. 
P emiisetum has 40 species, a few of which are be- 
