CHAPTER XIII.

IMMORTELLES, OR EVERLASTING FLOWERS, AND ORNAMENTAL GRASSES.

“There is religion in a flower: Its still small voice is as the voice of conscience. Mountains and oceans, planets, suns and systems, Bear not the impress of Almighty power In characters more legible than those Which He hath written on the tiniest flower Whose light bell bends beneath the dew-drop’s weight.”

No collection of flowers is complete without some few varieties of Immortelles, or Everlasting Flowers. When ice and snow abound, they serve to brighten our in-door surroundings. Mingled with dried grasses and branches of Arbor Vitæ, or some other evergreen, they make good substitutes for their more delicate sisters who are faded and gone.

My sitting room is always adorned, in the wintry season, with vases of these bright flowers, which retain their places until forced to yield them to the fragile flowers of the early spring.

So in ordering your seeds, don’t forget to write down an assortment of these flowers, whose beauty is not evanescent.

They are invaluable decorations for home and church, and can be made into crowns, crosses and bouquets.

Their flowers should be gathered while in the bud; if allowed to expand, they will not be as handsome when dried. The stems should be tied together, and the bunches hung up in a dark, dry closet, taking care not to tie them up in too large quantities, to dry quickly, else they may mildew or mould. When well dried, put away in boxes until desired for use.

To save seeds from them, it is best to let the first blossoms remain uncut, and mature. When ripe, cut them off, and preserve until another season.

These plants will grow in any common garden soil. They are not particularly ornamental, as their flowers are kept well cut off, and it is better to plant a bed of them among the vegetables, or in some out-of-the-way corner, as they will not add to the beauty of your flower beds or lawns.

In the large cities, quite a trade is carried on in the way of these flowers, and thousands of them are yearly imported to supply the demand for crowns and crosses for the decoration of the cemeteries. At all seasons of the year they are appropriate there, for neither rain nor sun injures them, when well dried; while they, in their unfading brightness, fully corroborate their claims to the title of Immortelles.

The florists’ catalogues offer us a good variety to select from, and at the head of the list stand the Acrocliniums--perhaps not quite as beautiful as Rhodanthe Manglesii, but easier of cultivation, as they are quite hardy, and not as delicate in habit.

They grow a foot high, and are of two kinds--a bright rose color, and pure white--each with a yellow center. The flowers are fragile enough to pass for “artificials,” and they have been used in decorating ladies’ hats, with good effect. Vases filled with them, and mingled with animated oats and grasses, are very ornamental. No garden should be without them.

Ammobium alatum is a white flower, which is very pretty in arranging memorial wreaths or crosses.

Globe Amaranth, or Gomphrena is commonly cultivated. It is found in shades from a bright orange to a purplish crimson, and pure white. The flowers should be gathered as soon as the colors are well developed.

Helichrysums are very desirable. They are in all varieties of color, from the brightest yellow, the purest white, to the richest shades of red. The minimum, or dwarf species, are the prettiest for wreaths, etc. Be sure to cut the buds, and they will dry into perfect flowers.

Helipterum Sanfordi is a later importation. Its flowers are of a bright golden yellow, and grow in small clusters of fine flowers, making an agreeable variety. Another kind produces snowy white flowers.

Rhodanthe is a charming everlasting. Its bright, bell shaped flowers and graceful habit make it an addition to the flower beds, as well as for winter decorations. There are four varieties.

Rhodanthe alba is of silvery whiteness, and the finest white Immortelle grown.

Rhodanthe atrosanguinea has dark crimson flowers, with a violet disc or center.

Rhodanthe Maculata has larger blossoms of a bright rose color, tinged with violet purple, with a yellow center. It is a fine plant for window gardening.

Rhodanthe Manglesii is the oldest variety. Its blossoms are rose colored, suffused with white. All these flowers are the most desirable of their kind. The silvery scales on the outside of the flower contrast charmingly with the brighter colors of the petals.

Waitzia aurea and grandiflora have flowers of a brilliant gold color, and produce a fine effect, when mingled with others. They bloom in clusters, and if left too long on the plant, become dingy and discolored.

Xeranthemums are very easily cultivated. The seeds vegetate as quickly as those of the Aster or Balsam. They are of various colors, and grow about one foot high, blooming very freely.

All of these plants require some space to grow in, and the plants must be transplanted at least a foot apart to bloom advantageously.

These Everlasting Flowers can be dyed into various colors. Last autumn some bright yellow Helichrysums fell into a solution of borax, and turned their petals to the most glorious sunset hue, with a fine metallic lustre. It oxydized the color, and my vases are still resplendent with the flowers. I tried its effect upon crimson and pink flowers, but it failed to beautify them, but faded out all their original brightness. The yellow flowers are of a wonderful golden-scarlet hue, rarely seen in any flower that grows. Dip the flowers into a cup of water into which as much borax as will dissolve has been added, and see for yourself the perfect shade of color. Family dyes can be used to dye purple, scarlet and green, and mosses can be thus prepared to arrange among the bright-hued flowers, making prettier objects for home adornment than can be purchased at the shops. Purple dye can be made at home from one ounce of ground logwood, one tablespoonful of powdered alum, and one pint of soft water; boil for twenty minutes; when cool, put in the flowers.

Yellow dye can be made with one ounce of quercitron bark; same proportions of alum and water as above; boil twenty minutes. Mix indigo with the yellow dye, and a beautiful green is formed, which will dye mosses or grasses perfectly.

_Ornamental Grasses._

The varieties of grasses are almost innumerable. There are already known and described three thousand species in the world, and in America alone there are six hundred. On a small bit of turf, not a foot square, you may often find five or six different kinds. Our prairies abound in numerous varieties--some radiated, and variegated purple and green, like the peacock’s plumage--others pinnated and feathery, as the marabout’s plume; but all exceedingly beautiful!

The Durva grass of the Hindoos is one of the most perfect that is known.

Sir William Jones remarks that:--

“The flowers in their perfect state afford the loveliest object in creation; and when examined with a microscope, they resemble emeralds and rubies trembling in the slightest breath of air. Nor is the Durva less esteemed for its valuable qualities. It affords the sweetest and most nutritious pasturage for cattle; and its usefulness and beauty induced the Hindoos, even in the earliest ages, to believe that it was the dwelling place of a presiding and benevolent nymph, who loved to listen to the cropping of dewy herbage by flocks and herds in meadows, and beside clear streams. Poets feigned that looking forth from her diverging spike, adorned with purple flowers and ranged in two close, alternate rows, wherever she presided blights and mildews were unknown, and that the air was loaded with fragrance, as if from bowers of balm, although neither roses, citrons, richly scented magnolias, nor orange trees grew contiguous.”

The Veda celebrates this inimitable grass in the following sentence of the A. E. harvana:--

“May the Durva, which arose from the waters of life, and which hath a hundred roots and a hundred stems, prolong my existence on earth for a hundred years.”

Linnæus kneeled beside the northern holy grass, and thanked the Lord for having made it. Paley, the great moralist, loved the grasses, and delighted in the inspection of their tiny florets. And Christ taught us a lesson of faith from them, saying:--

“Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven; shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?”

By grasses are meant all those plants which have a round, jointed, and hollow stem, surrounded at each joint with a single leaf, long, narrow and pointed, and whose seeds are contained in chaffy husks. This numerous family embraces even the tall Bamboo of India and the tropical climates, which affords building material for houses, furniture and carriages, and yet is brother to the meadow fox-tail grass.

The Ornamental Grasses are attracting more attention every year, and they are especially adapted to planting _en masse_, or in single beds on the lawn.

They are easily grown from seeds, which cost but a trifle. The perennial kinds are more desirable on account of their permanency; but there are many annual and biennial species well worthy of cultivation, even in the smallest garden. They add much to the attractiveness of bouquet or vase, and are truly numbered among the _indispensables_.

Andropogon Argenteum has silvery colored leaves and plumes of flowers; is quite hardy, grows four feet high, and is raised either from seeds or the division of its roots.

Andropogon bombycinus is a lovely novelty; with plumes covered with silky hairs of a metallic whiteness. It is a hardy perennial from Persia, growing one foot high.

Arundo donax versicolor has striped foliage, and is one of the most beautiful of grasses. It is not quite hardy, but should be covered with sods, or placed in a dry cellar during winter.

Chloropsis Blanchardia is a very elegant species, with rose colored spikes. It is also tender, requires protection in a northern climate.

Bromus brizæformis is a hardy species, with drooping panicles; grows one foot high.

Chascolytrum erectum is also hardy, and very ornamental; is a native of Chili; grows eighteen inches.

Chloris myriostachies is a new variety, with velvety flower heads; hardy; grows three feet.

Cyperus Paramatta belongs to the sedge family, and is very attractive.

Erianthus Ravennal is one of the most desirable species cultivated. It is quite hardy, and forms large clumps from which the stems rise to the height of ten to twelve feet, and are crowned with silvery plumes of twenty inches in length. A clump of this beautiful grass in full bloom, is an object of universal admiration. Its flowers are pure white, with a silvery lustre.

Gynerium argenteum (Pampas grass), is truly the “Queen of Ornamental Grasses.” It must be seen to be appreciated. It is tender in the northern States, but its roots can be kept in boxes in the cellar during winter.

Panicum capilaceum is hardy, and very rich in foliage of rosy hue.

Pepragmites communis grows commonly along the banks of our northern rivers, but it is beautiful, and deserves a place among its foreign brethren. Its spikes of flowers are covered with long, white, silky hairs.

Stipa pennata (Feather grass), is very ornamental, the seeds vegetate slowly, and should be started under glass.

Trypsacum dactyloides is a very handsome and hardy grass.

Among the annual varieties I should select--

Agrostis retrafracta, an extremely graceful species; a great addition to bouquets and vases.

Agrostis Steveni, with beautiful, feathery panicles.

Avena sterilis (Animated Oats), with large drooping spikes of flowers.

Briza maxima (Quaking grass), very beautiful.

Briza geniculata, dwarf habit; very graceful.

Chloris radiata, a curious variety; very desirable.

Chloris truncata, silvery plumes.

Eleusine barcinonensis, a novelty with out-spreading plumes of flowers; lovely for house culture.

Hordeum jubatum (Squirrel-tail grass), lovely green and purplish plumes.

Lagurus ovatus (Hare’s-tail grass), very pleasing.

Panicum variegatum, one of the most graceful and ornamental plants for baskets or vases.

Paspalum elegans, white flower.