THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, March 24, 1S57 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
421 
D 
M 
D 
W 
MARCH 24—30, 1857. 
Weather near Lon 
Barometer. Thermo. 
DON IN 
Wind. 
1856. 
Rain in 
Inches. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
It. & S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bf. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
24 
Tu 
Tuberous Moschatel (Adox). 
30.141—30.007 
45—36 
E. 
— 
55 a. 5 
17 a. 6 
5 37 
28 
6 
22 
83 
25 
W 
Rady Day. 
29.909—29.828 
43—35 
N.E. 
53 
19 
sets 
@ 
6 
3 
84 
26 
Tii 
Sengreen (Chrysophvllum). 
29.879—29.852 
42—29 
E. 
— 
51 
21 
7 a. 29 
1 
5 
45 
85 
27 
F 
Golden Saxifrage. 
29.884—29.873 
51—21 
N.E. 
— 
49 
23 
9 3 
2 
5 
26 
86 
28 
s 
Chickweed (Stellaria medi). 
29-979—29.913 
47—29 
N.E. 
— 
46 
24 
10 37 
3 
5 
8 
87 
29 
Sun 
6 th Sunday in Lent. 
30.232—30.144 
44-17 
E. 
— 
44 
26 
mom. 
4 
4 
50 
88 
30 
M 
Great Stitchwort (Stellaria). 
30.243—30.212 
52—15 
E. 
— 
42 
27 
0 10 
5 
4 
31 
89 
Meteorology of the Week. —At Chiswick, from observations during the last twenty-eight years, the average highest and lowest 
temperatures of these days are 51.6°, and 32.9°, respectively. The greatest heat, 75°, occurred on the 2/th, in 1830 ; and the lowest cold, 14°, 
on the 25th, in 1850. During the period 120 days were fine, and on 76 rain fell. 
ORNAMENTAL GRASSES. 
GYNE'RIUM ARGE'NTEUM. 
(Pampas Grass.) 
This gigantic Grass—for Grass it is, though there is 
some doubt as to the genus to which it belongs—is to he 
arranged in the Dicecia Diandria Class and Order of the 
Linnsean system. Tho generic name is derived from 
gyne, a female, and erion, wool, referring to the woolly 
appearance of the stigma. The specific name, argenteurn, 
silvery, alludes to the silvery whiteness of the flowers, 
a whiteness arising from their colourless glumes and 
scales, and from the similar absence of colour from the 
long hairs by which they are accompanied. 
The popular name is singularly inapplicable, for it is ’ 
found in no part of the Pampas. This name is likely 
to mislead the cultivator, for the soil and climate of 
those vast plains, the Pampas, are peculiarly dry. So 
far, however, is the Gynerium from delighting in dry¬ 
ness,, that we are informed that it is only found on the 
banks of the Parana, and other rivers of South America. 
The roots are wide-spreading, numerous, and fibrous. 
The leaves are from six to eight feet long, though not 
half an inch broad, hard, spiny-saw-toothed at the edge, 
very rough, and of a dull grey green colour. Flower- 
stem from ten to fourteen feet high, cylindrical. Flowers 
in a much-branched panicle, forming brilliant plumes j 
from eighteen inches to two feet and a half in length, j 
all of a silvery whiteness. The flowers are in perfection 
during October and November. 
This noble Grass was known to botanists early in the 
present century; but its introduction into cultivation in 
our gardens is of very recent occurrence, and is entirely 
due to David Moore, Esq., superintendent of the 
Glasueviu Botanical Garden, Dublin. Pie received 
seeds some time in 1848 from Mr. Tweedie, of Buenos 
Ayres, who had gathered them in South Brazil. Mr. 
Tweedie described it as “ the most showy plant of any 
class in this country (Brazil) when in blossom, appearing 
like white sheets hung on poles, and is seen at a distance 
of many miles. It likes a cool clay soil.” That it is so 
hardy in our climate, although a tropical plant, is not 
surprising, since several botanists state they found it 
growing in the' Cordillera of the Andes at elevations 
12,000 and 14,000 feet above the sea’s level. 
It is a perennial, and bears a full exposure to the 
winter even in the latitude of London; but in that 
latitude Messrs. Henderson, of Pino Apple Place Nur 
sery, find it advantageous, when the autumn is ended, to 
tie the leaves together around the heart of the plant, 
and to envelope the whole in a mat. The mat may 
be opened on all favourable occasions, and entirely 
removed by the end of March. This covering preserves 
the centre of the plant uninjured, and enables it to 
produce its flower-stems earlier. 
If raised from seeds, these should be sown early in 
March in pots well-drained, and then filled with a 
compost of equal parts peat and sandy loam. Cover 
the seeds very slightly, and do not give water for a few 
days, but afterwards water freely. The pots must be 
No. CCCCXLIII. Vol. XVII. 
