THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION, April 28, 1857. 47 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
D 
M 
D 
W 
APRIL 28—MAY 4, 1857. 
Weather near Lon 
Barometer. {Thermo. 
t r 
DON IN 
Wind. 
1856. 
Rain in 
Inches. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
M oon 
R.&S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
. 
Clock 
bf. Sun. 
Pay of 
Year. 
_ 
28 
Tu 
Bethlehem Star. 
29 . 561 — 29.540 
55—25 
N. 
— 
39 a. 4 
16 a. 7 
0 2.3 
4 
2 
38 
118 
29 
W 
Harebell (Hyacinthus). 
29 . 610 — 29.568 
56—31 
N.W. 
— 
37 
17 
1 17 
5 
2 
47 
H9 
30 
Til 
Bilberry (Vaccinitim). [b. 1850. 
29 . 6 . 33 — 29.610 
57-29 
• • 
07 
3G 
19 
1 56 
6 
2 
56 
120 
1 
F 
St. Pa. & St. Jas. Pr. Artm. 
29.838—29.46.3 
47—30 
N.E. 
12 
IV 
VII 
2m 19 
3 
3 
3 
121 
2 
S 
29-977—29.970 
54—27 
N.W. 
— 
32 
22 
2 37 
8 
3 
11 
122 
3 
Sun 
3 Sunday after Easter. 
80.099—30.015 
62—37 
N.W. 
16 
30 
24 
2 60 
9 
3 
17 
123 
4 
M 
Mare’s-tail (Hippuris). 
30.111—30.048 
52—21 
N.E. 
— 
28 
25 
3 1 
10 
3 
2.3 
124 
Meteorology of the Week. —At Chiswick, from observations during the last twenty-eight years, the average highest and lowest 
temperatures of these days are 63.1°, and 39.4°, respectively. The greatest heat, 81°, occurred on the 28th, in 1840 ; and the lowest cold, 20°, 
on the 2nd, in 1855. During the period 112 days were fine, and on 84 rain fell. 
ORNAMENTAL GRASSES. 
LAGU'RUS OYA'TUS. 
(Egg-shaped Hare’s-tail Grass.) 
i This is an annual. Root fibrous, whitish, woolly. 
Stems one or two, from eight to twelve inches high 
when cultivated, four or five jointod, round, leafy, 
marked with small furrows except near the top, where 
it is smooth. Leaves spear-head shaped, pointed, 
many ribbed, downy on both sides, edges wavy, abrupt, 
and sometimes rounded at the base. Sheaths of leaves 
swollen, ribbed, and very downy. Stipules oblong, em¬ 
bracing the stem, downy. Flower-spike about one inch 
I L 
and a half long and half an inch broad, rather bent 
to one side, egg-shaped, many-flowered, very woolly, 
owing to the numerous greyish white, soft hairs of the 
calyx , and beset at the base with many empty chaffy 
valves {glumes) similarly hairy; the upper part is 
bristly, owing to the number of prominent, brownish 
beards {awns) of the flowers. Calyx single-flowered, 
formed of two long, slender, membranous, spreading 
valves, fringed, as well as their terminal awn, with 
many soft hairs. Corolla of two unequal valves, thicker 
and firmer than the calyx, the outer longest, oblong 
egg-shaped, concave, ending in two equal upright awns 
shorter than the calyx, and having a much longer one 
from the middle of its back, twisting in the lower part, 
tapering and direct in the upper, bent back when dry; 
inner valve smaller, edges turned in, cloven, awnless. 
Nectary deeply cloven, pointed. Filaments hair shaped, 
shorter than the calyx. Anthers erect, oblong, cloven 
at each end. Cermen oblong oval. Styles very short. 
Stigmas cylindrical, feathery. Seed oblong, blunt ended, 
with a furrow along the front, loose, but with the un¬ 
changed corolla wrapped round it. 
It belongs to the Triandria Digynia class and order 
of Linnaeus. 
The generic name Lagurus is derived from lagos , a 
hare, and oura, a tail, both that and the specific name, 
ovatus , egg-shaped, referring to the appearance and form 
of the flower-spike. It is a native of France, Spain, 
Portugal, Italy, and Sicily; but, having been found in 
the Island of Guernsey, it is entitled to be numbered 
among the British Grasses. The first author mention¬ 
ing it is Dodoens, in 1578 ; but he, as well as Gerarde 
and Parkinson, calls it Alopecuros, or Fox-tail Grass. 
Gerarde’s description is correct as far as it extends :— 
“ This Idnde of Fox-taile Gjrasse groweth in England 
onely in gardens. It springeth up in May of the seed 
that was scattered the yere before, and beareth his taile 
with his seed in June.” From this we learn that it was 
cultivated in England in 1597, more than forty years 
earlier than is stated in the Hortus Kewensis. It is a 
native of sandy soils near the seashore, where it blooms 
in June. We should sow the seed in September on a 
warm border, and early in April transplant the seedlings 
to where they are to remain, in patches, without dis¬ 
turbing their roots, and during showery weather. 
s 
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No. CCCCXLVIII. Vol. XVIII. 
