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The Botanical Magazine, Vol. 10 / Or, Flower-Garden Displayed cover

The Botanical Magazine, Vol. 10 / Or, Flower-Garden Displayed

Chapter 35: 357—Briza Maxima
By William Curtis
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Nature/Gardening/AnimalsScience - Biology

About This Book

A sequence of coloured botanical plates is paired with concise Linnaean names and diagnostic characters, followed by descriptions of form, flowering time, native or introduced range, and recommended methods of cultivation and propagation. Individual entries emphasize morphological detail useful for identification and note practical growing habits observed in collections. The volume supplies systematic indexes that organize species by Latin and English names, hardiness, and whether they suit open ground, greenhouse, or stove culture. The result serves as a combined visual reference and hands-on guide for recognizing and cultivating a wide range of ornamental plants.

[357]

Briza Maxima. Great Quaking Grass.

Class and Order.

Triandria Digynia.

Generic Character.

Cal. 2-valvis, multiflorus. Spicula disticha: valvulis cordatis, obtusis: interiore minuta.

Specific Character and Synonyms.

BRIZA maxima spiculis cordatis, flosculis septendecim. Linn. Syst. Veget. ed. 14. Murr. p. 115. Ait. Kew. v. 1. p. 103.

GRAMEN tremulum maximum. Bauh. Pin. 2.

PHALARIS pratensis altera. Pearle Grasse. Ger. emac. p. 87. f. 3.

No. 357

The Grasses are in general more regarded for utility than ornament, yet in the latter point of view many of them have engaged the attention of the curious, and long held a place in the flower-garden, to which they have a twofold claim, as they not only decorate the garden when fresh, but the mantle-shelf when dry; to these purposes the present species of Briza has long been applied: Johnson tells us, in his time, 1633, "it was sowen yearlely in many of the London gardens."

This species, a native of Spain and Italy, blossoms in June and July, and ripens its seeds in August.

Where it has once seeded it comes up spontaneously, without the trouble of sowing it; autumnal seedlings make the strongest plants, they are liable however to be cut off in very severe seasons; should that happen, sow more seed in the spring with your other annuals.