1879.] 
AMERICAN AaRTOULTURIST. 
887 
The Large Cone-Elower. 
When one reads the gushing articles which now’ 
and then appear about prairies and prairie flowers, in 
which these treeless expanses are spoken of as 
“flowering meads” and “nature’s own flower 
gardens,” we are inclined to think that the writers 
can never have seen a prairie. It is true that a 
erer, reaches nine feet, is with us about six feet 
high, and simple or sparingly branched above. The 
leaves are generally ovate, the lower on long peti¬ 
oles, the upper sessile and more or less clasping 
the stem ; all have that peculiar green color known 
as glaucous, or sea-green, of which we have a good 
example in the cabbage-leaf, and which gives to 
this plant one of its most striking characters. The 
get it by violating nature. What can be more uu- 
natural than a panicle of grass of the deepest crim¬ 
son or most intense scarlet, unless it be one of jet 
black, all of these absurdities being unpleasantly 
common ? Both annual and perennial grasses are 
cultivated. Among the former are several species, 
the chief merit of which is the delicacy of their 
panicles and the minute size of their spikelets r, 
the large cone-flower ( Ttudbeckia maxima). 
THE BROAD-LEAVED UN I OLA ( Uniola Ud>folia). 
prairie impresses one with a sense of grandeur, due 
to its vastness, but when it comes to prairie flow¬ 
ers, they are on the same broad scale—large and 
showy—but lacking in that delicacy in form and 
color that constitute beauty in a flower. The im¬ 
mense Sun-flowers, the tall Cone-flowers, and others 
of similar stature, make up the general floral effect, 
their coarseness being unnoticed as they are spread 
over a vast area, in which the more delicate species 
would be lost from view. Among these coarse and 
tall prairie flowers are many worthy of cultivation, 
certainly not as bouquet flowers, but for a large gar¬ 
den, where their robustness and vigor make them 
very effective, if seen from a distance. For this 
use several of the Cone-flowers ( RudbecJcia ) of the 
Western Prairies have long been in cultivation, and 
we have for some years had in the garden a south¬ 
ern and south-western species, Budbeclcia maxima , 
the “ Large Cone-Flower,” which is so much un¬ 
like the other species that we call attention to it 
as desirable where there is room for such subjects. 
This species, extending from Arkansas, its north¬ 
ern limit, through Louisiana to Texas, and being a 
peculiarly southern species, we are rather surprised 
to find it hardy ; as it has stood the past three 
winters without protection, we may regard it as 
hardy for the climate of New York City. The 
aspect of the plant is quite different from that of 
any of the more familiar species ; while its specific 
name, maxima, indicates that it is large; it is 
without the coarseness that belongs to the others. 
The stem, which, according to Nuttali, its discov- 
flower heads are either solitary, at the end of the 
stem, or the stem branches above and has the 
heads of flowers on naked stalks fifteen or twenty 
inches long. The flower-heads are striking, on 
account of the peculiar shape of the brownish disk, 
as the central portion of the flower-head is called. 
In most of the Composite Family the central por¬ 
tion is flat or convex, as we see in the common Sun¬ 
flower, while here it becomes conical and extends 
upwards to the bight of one or two inches, pro¬ 
jecting above the few long yellow rays, which soon 
become drooping. Now that the plant has proved 
to be hardy, its tall stature, its neat glaucous foilage, 
joined to the peculiar appearance of its flower- 
heads, will make it desirable in gardens, cither in 
isolated clumps or at the rear of other pla .ts. 
Ornamental Grasses for Winter. 
That tthe cultivation of grasses has greatly in¬ 
creased within a few years is shown by the fact 
that the majority of the seedsmen’s catalogues have 
a separate division for their seeds. Grasses are 
grown both for the decoratiou of the grounds and 
for use iu winter bouquets, etc. We have no sympa¬ 
thy whatever with that taste which leads to the 
dyeing of grasses, and even bronzing them. We 
think a bouquet of properly dried, aud tastefully 
arranged, graceful grasses a very pleasing decora¬ 
tion. It seems strange to us that people can not 
be satisfied with beauty of form and grace of out¬ 
line, but must have color in addition, even if they 
these are only useful for in-door work, in which 
they are very effective. Among the perennials. 
Pampas Grass stands at the head. It is tender at 
the North, but it is worth the trouble of covering 
in winter. Its long feathery plumes are a consid¬ 
erable article of trade, being sent in large numbers 
from the Southern States and California. Next to 
this is the Ravenna Grass, Erianlhu I Bavemue, per¬ 
fectly hardy, but its plumes luck the silkiness and 
grace of that. Our common Reed ( Phragmites ), the 
European Reed (Arundo), the native Beard Grasses 
(Andropogoii ), aud the Woolly Beard Grasses [Eri~ 
anthus), and, above all, the Japanese Eulalia ( Eula¬ 
lia Japonica), are hardy near New York City. The- 
beauty of most of the above depends mainly upon 
the hairs which accompany the florets, hence it is 
desirable to retain these, not only for this reason, 
but to prevent them from annoying the housekeeper 
by making a litter. They should be collected when 
fairly in flower, which may be known by the ap¬ 
pearance of the anthers, and hung up in small; 
bunches iu a room free of dust. Among the small¬ 
er perennial species specially worthy of cultivation 
is the “ Feather Grass ” (JUipa pennata), the long 
plumy tails to the flowers of which are largely im¬ 
ported, dyed in all sorts of unnatural colors, as if 
nature’s own delicate buff could be improved upon. 
Then there is the “Broad-leaved Uniola” ( Uniola 
latifolia), a native species, found from Pennsylvania 
and Illinois, southward. This grows two or three 
feet high, aud has a large, loose panicle, bearing 
large flattened spikelets of the shape shown in the 
