For the purpose of embellishing our homes in winter with elegant and pretty groups or bouquets of dried flowers, there are no class possessing more graceful and attractive forms than such as are termed ornamental grasses. They are very easy of cultivation, and the best way is to place them in a bed by themselves, as then they will be cared for, and be more likely to be gathered at the right time than if scattered around in the various beds or borders. For preservation, the only point required is to cut them at the right time, and that is just before they begin to fade and drop their seeds, or, rather, when they are in the full flush and grace of beauty, whether it be summer or autumn. This season of gathering is another reason for placing them in a bed by themselves, as when placed connected with flowers, the loss of beauty to the bed is so great from gathering, that many hesitate, and finally leave them until their beauty is lost. After cutting, simply place them on a shelf in X dry, darkish room, where they will be free from dust, and in a few days they will be fit for use.

Seeds of many beautiful varieties may be obtained of nearly all seedsmen, and if they are sown in pots some time in March, covering the seeds from an eighth to a sixteenth of an inch deep with fine sandy soil, placing them where they will get the light and heat of the daily sun, but protected from cold winds and frost, say either in a cold pit or on the window-sill inside the house, the seeds will soon vegetate, and by the middle of April or early in May be ready to turn out in the open ground; or the seed of most varieties may be sown in the open ground about the 1st of May.

Fig. 21. - Pampas Grass.

During the past two seasons we have often examined clumps or masses of ornamental grasses growing in the grounds of our amateur friends; and recently our friend Jas. F. Hind, Esq., of Nottingham, wrote us from England, in glowing terms, of the beauty of a clump of Pampas grass which he saw growing on a lawn, and having over one hundred and seventy heads or stems of flowers. The Feather grasses are perhaps among the varieties most grown here. They are delicate, and always beautiful, and when made up into bouquets, mingle beautifully with the coarser heads of the animated oat. Our friend sends us also a drawing of Bambusa gracilis, the stems of which, he writes, were six feet, while another variety, the nigra had stems fifteen feet.

Fig. 22. - Bambusa Gracilis.