THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, April 21, 1857, 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
31 
D 
M 
D 
W 
APRIL 21—28, 1857. 
21 
Tu 
Cowslip (P. officinalis). 
22 
W 
Abler Buckthorn (Rhamnus). 
23 
Tu 
Gooseberry (Rihes). 
24 
P 
Fritillary (Fritillaria). 
25 
S 
St. Mark. Prs. Al. b. 1843. 
26 
Sun 
2 Sunday after Easter. 
27 
M 
Tulip (Tulipa sylvestris). 
Weather near London in 185(5. 
Barometer. 
Thermo. 
30.226—30.110 
30.(134—29.967 
29.907—29.872 
29 . 891 — 29.780 
29 . 695 — 29.591 
29 . 437 - 29.457 
29 . 560 — 29.442 
62— 27 
56— 24 
57- 37 
59—35 
76—35 
63— 40 
44—32 
Wind. 
Rain in 
Inches. 
N.E. 
S.E. 
N.E. 
S.E. 
s.w. 
E. 
22 
53 
14 
Sun 
Rises. 
53 a. 4 
51 
49 
47 
45 
43 
41 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R.&S. 
4 a. 
6 
7 
9 
11 
12 
14 
3 55 
4 8 
4 21 
sets. 
9 a 36 
11 7 
morn. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
27 
28 
29 
1 
2 
3 
Clock 
bf. Sun. 
23 
35 
1 47 
1 58 
Day of 
Year. 
2 
2 
2 
9 
19 
29 
111 
112 
113 
114 
115 
116 
117 
Mbteoroiogy of the Week. 
"At Chiswick, from observations during the last twenty-eight years, the average highest and lowest 
temperatures of these days are 5S.6°, and 37.3°, respectively. The greatest heat, 80°, occurred on the 25th, in 1840 • and the lowest cold 18° 
on the 24th, in 1854. During the period 102 days were fine, and on 94 rain fell. ’ ’ 6 C J ’ * ’ 
ORNAMENTAL GRASSES. 
RRI'ZA MAXIMA. 
bent inwards, terminating in a sharp point. Flower- 
(Greatest Quaking Grass.) 
Roots annual, and consisting of many white, fibrous 
rootlets. Leaves arising direct from the crown of the 
root, about half an inch broad at their base, about four 
inches long, smooth, milky green, and their edges often 
stem rather slender, about two feet high, round, very 
slightly furrowed, with four or five knots or joints, the 
chief part of its length inclosed in the sheaths of the 
leaves, the lower part of which is often purple. Flowers 
crown the stem hi a loose, nodding panicle of scaly 
spikelets, of which the largest are nearly an inch long, 
and one-third of an inch broad at their base, tapering off 
to a flat-sided cone shape. When ripe these spikelets are 
of a very pale straw colour, and have a silvery lustre, 
often slightly tiuged with purple near their base ; stalks 
of the spikelets very fine; the florets are in two rows ; 
calyx of two unequal valves; ovary almost hemisphe¬ 
rical, with two points. It belongs to Triandria Digynia 
of the Linnsean System. 
The earliest writer who mentions it as grown in this 
country is Gerarde. He says it was then called “ Pearl 
Grass and Garden Quakers, growing naturally in some 
parts of Spain, and it is sown yearly in many of our 
English gardens.” 
The term Quaking Grass has reference to the spikelets, 
which are in constant motion, being agitated by the 
slightest current of air, owing to their size, and the 
extreme delicacy and length of their stalks. 
Parkinson, who wrote a few years later than Gerarde, 
says this Grass was given to him by Clusius, the 
botanist, under the name of “the elegant Grass with 
Hop-like heads ” ( Gramens elegans lupuli glumis ), a very 
descriptive title, and, adds Parkinson, “ It is now-a-days 
among our gentlewomen much esteemed to wear on 
their heads or arms, as they would do any fine flower or 
pretty toy to behold, as also to put into wreaths and 
garlands that the country people make for their sports 
and pastimes.” 
Ray, writing about the same time, says that when he 
sowed it in the spring it produced its flower-heads in 
August, but if he sowed it in the autumn they were 
« produced in spring. He found it growing wild near 
Messina, in Sicily, and it is also a native of Italy and 
other parts of southern Europe. 
It flourishes in any fnoderately fertile, loamy garden 
soil, and may be sown at either of the seasons mentioned 
by Ray. The seedlings from the autumn sowing are some¬ 
times destroyed by severe winters. 
The glory has not altogether departed from Chiswick. 
The Horticultural Society, once effete and powerless 
No. CCCCXLVir. Vol. nviii. 
