DECEMBER. 
373 
stoles with a piece of root to each, or by imported seed (for we do not 
imagine, from its season of flowering in this country, it will ripen any 
seeds here), which should be sown on the surface of broad pans or 
boxes, filled with sandy peat. The soil should be kept moist and 
shaded, when the young plants will soon appear, and may be pricked 
out into other pans till they are large enough for transferring to the 
open ground. Botanists describe the Gynerium as being dioecious, or 
having male and female flowers on different plants ; the male flowers 
being wanting in size and brilliancy of colour, any plants found pro¬ 
ducing them should be destroyed, as the propagation of the female or 
more ornamental variety is easily effected, and plants only from this 
kind should be made use of. 
By way of helping our description, and to enable our readers 
better to judge of the effect produced by the Pampas Grass when in 
bloom, we append a woodcut of a plant growing in the beautiful 
grounds of Stoke Park, the seat of the Bight Hon. H. Labouchere. 
That plant of this Grass is one of a lot of seedlings raised in 1854, 
shifted into an 11-inch pot in the autumn, and wintered under glass, 
merely keeping the frost from it; it was planted out in May, 1855, it 
grew luxuriantly, and in October, 1856, it had eleven fine spikes of 
flowers, and in the present year it has forty-two^ spikes, from 10 to 
11^ feet in height. 
'The subsoil where it is growing is gravel to within a few inches of 
the surface. A pit was taken out for it 3J feet in width and 2 feet 
deep, and filled up with loam, with a mixture of charcoal and well- 
rotted manure. 
We shall at some future time notice a few of our own indigenous 
Grasses, many of which are very ornamental, and are well worth culti¬ 
vating for special objects. 
NOTES ON THE MONTH. 
November, the month of fogs and gloom, is now drawing to a close, 
and in place of the usual accompaniments of the season, we have been 
enjoying days of balmy sunshine, reminding us more of autumn in 
“ la helle Italic ,than the murky atmosphere of England. Taken 
on the whole, the season has been one of the most propitious for many 
years to the farmer and gardener. The price of agricultural produce 
shows this of the former, and the abundance and high quality of orchard 
fruits speak for the latter; so let us hope our poorer neighbours will 
again partake of plenty. The mildness of the season has continued up 
to the day we write, with the solitary exception of a slight frost on the 
14th, which cut off Dahlia blooms in some situations. But this scarcely 
affected garden Geraniums, Verbenas, or even Heliotropes, which even 
yet continue to cheer us with the faded remains of their summer glory. 
The 18th and 21st were particularly brilliant days. Butterflies were 
on the wing, and the missel-thrush enlivened the woods by his well- 
known notes during the day. What a gay appearance the blooms of 
