!)6 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
November II. 
We first saw the nohle Pampas Grass {Qynerium arymi- 
temn) in the garden of the Ilorticnltiirnl Society, last 
September, coming into flower, and in the first week of 
October we called at Kew, and found it there in full bloom, 
planted out on the grass near the plant houses. T'here 
were twenty-si.x or twenty-seven flower spikes on this 
fine plant, and notwithstanding the general opinion 
that more species are to bo seen at Kew than in any 
other collection in this country, after seeing most of 
them, we came to the conclusion that the Pampas Grass 
was the best plant they had in this national garden, con¬ 
sidering that every cottage gardener in the kingdom 
could grow and flower it as well us they do at Kew. 
Prom that day we made up our mind to put all re¬ 
sources into active play, in order to provide plants of it 
to try the experiment. With the exception of the 
electric telegraph, these means were put in force, and 
the “returns” we shall show presently; hut first ol all 
let us say, that the tops of the flower-stems of this grass 
stood full nine feet high, that the panicles or flowering 
parts were from eighteen to twenty and twenty-four 
inches long, the plumes, or feathery parts, falling grace¬ 
fully on one side, and as the wind moved them about, 
two distinct shades were produced in undulating waves, 
a silvery hue passing over a warm cream-coloured 
ground. It was late in the afternoon, after a shower, 
and the sun was strong upon them, and never were we 
more delighted with the sight of a flower. Sir W. 
Hooker, Dr. Wallich, and two other foreigners were 
there, and seemed to admire it as much as we did. It 
was only a few days before this that Sir W. I looker 
wrote as follows, “Who does not, among the many 
friends of Dr. Wallich, rejoice to learn that this distin¬ 
guished and most liberal botanist lias been recently 
honoured by his Danish Majesty in being made a 
Knight Commander of tho Order of Danehrog,” Who, 
indeed ! And who does not, among the many friends 
and admirers of these two distinguished and most liberal 
botanists, “ rejoico to learn” that they are both of them 
looking hale and hearty, and in as high spirits as if 
their healths had never been impaired, the one in 
easternnlimes, the other by harassing duties inseparable 
from his calling during tho vast changes and improve¬ 
ments which were effected in this garden during the last 
few years. 
'Phere are several plants of the ram])as Grass round 
Edinburgh and London, but none on sale. It comes 
into flower in Scotland earlier tlian in England, but no 
one has yet succeeded in getting seeds from it in either 
country. 'Tlie only place where seedlings of it are 
likely to be ripened, is tho Glasnevin Botanic Garden, 
in Dublin, and if they are there ripened, the curator, 
Mr. Moore, ought to make a good harvest of them, as 
every one on this side of the waUr is on the look out for 
the platit. 
Of all tho plans that wo can hear of for increasing it 
in other ways, that by Mr. Pince, of Exeter, this season, 
is the most likely to succeed. Instead of allowing his 
l)hiuts to run to flower, he cuts out the flower-stalks as 
soon as they appear, and thus causes the strength that 
would be expended in producing so many flower-stalks, 
up to nine or ten feet high, to be reserved for the crown 
or body of tho plant for the inci’ease of side-shoots, as 
one may say; then, by stripping oft' some of the lower 
leaves, as they do with suckers of tho Yucca or Pine¬ 
apple, and by “earthing up” the soil against these side- 
shoots, he expects thcTii to root before he removes tliem 
from the stool, and the idea is very feasible indeed, and 
no one will be more pleased to hear of a successful issue 
than The Cottage Gardener. 
We have suggested tliat Mr. Tweedio should he I 
written to for another su))ply of the seed of this most | 
desirable grass, but now it apjtears that no one in this 
country knows where he is, or whether he is dead or 
alive, or is ofl' to “the diggings.” We see no other 
course, therefore, but to get some parties to club together 
and secure the services of Mr. Fortune to go out to 
Paraguay to establish another new plantation of tea in 
the far west. No man knows better how to humour the j 
natives of a tea country than Mr. Fortune, and here is a [ 
country that has been tabooed for the last forty years as ' 
much as ever China was—larger than Great Britain, and 
as productive in its own peculiar tea or Mate (Jlex 
jtaraguayensis) as the far-famed tea districts in China, 
where he gained his well-earned laurels. Let Mr. For¬ 
tune be once introduced to his excellency General 
Urquisa to spin a yarn about tea and cotton planta¬ 
tions,—how the Celestials and Yankee-doodles might be 
outwitted in colouring tea and teasing cotton along the 
tributaries of the Parana and Uraguay—and we pledge 
our best gold pen that the bravo old soldier will have ' 
more cause to rejoice at his own “ decree,” by which 
this, the finest country in the western world, is now , 
opened “ to the sails of all nations,” than by all that Sir | 
Charles Ilotham and tho French Chevalier, or the like 
of them, could say till Cliristmas. ^ 
All this settled, and the ])lains ol' Beiiuos Ayres I 
rumaged for a large supply of our Pampas Grass, see 
tho thousand chances there would he for now plants in i 
Paraguay itself, where no plant collector has ever yet j 
set a foot. I.et us have a joint-stock enterprise into 
this new country, and not rest satislied till we have 
GaveniUsliia nohilis, and such Rhododendron-like jdants 
as common in the trade as conifers. Let our India 
experiments in raising cotton be repeated on the banks 
of the sluggish Parana and Uraguay, and if we do not 
like their holly tea, Mr. Fortune knows where and how 
to get tho real thing for them, and for tliose who know 
best how to go about the working of both concerns with¬ 
out recourse to “ Uncle 'Tom's” fraternity. B. 
Tuesday, November the 2d, was a great day for Slmng- 
hae Fowls and their keepers, for never were a more 
beautiful lot exposed for sale than on that day, and 
never before did they realise such prices. We refer to 
the sale by auction at the Bakci'-street Bazaar, and by 
the effective hammer of i\Ir. Htratt'ord, of the superfluous 
stock, and the chickens of ll:<52, of Mr. Sturgeon’s cele¬ 
brated fowls. There were 150 lots, and these realised 
