EDITOR'S EDITORIAL CHIT - CHAT . GRASSES THAT CAN BE GROWN.-The taste for cultivated grasses, we are glad to see, is improving. We can remember when nobody thought that grasses could be ornamental. But now anybody, who has a bit of lawn, even the tiniest, can greatly beautify it by planting there some one of the new foreign grasses. Let your piece of ground be only the smallest bed, say in front of your dusty townhouse, yet you can make it charming by setting out some ornamental grasses. If you live in the country, even in a village, and much the more upon a farm, you have greater scope, because more ground. Take the Pampas grass, for instance that giant grass of South Brazils, whose flowerstems grow from ten to twelve feet high even in this country- and how it sets off a bit of lawn! Though the native of a tropical climate, it can be easily cultivated in our gardens, where a solitary specimen or two will be quite sufficient, unless the garden be a very extensive one. It likes a cool clay soil best of any, and the flowers come to perfection in September or October ; they look like beautiful plumes of silvery white feathers ; the leaves are narrow and tremendously long; they are, indeed, sometimes six or eight feet in length, and of rather a dull green color. When this grass is raised from seeds, they should be sown early in March, in pots, which should at first be kept in a warm pit, and moved into a green-house when the plants are well up. The soil should be kept very moist at all times. In the following November the plants should be shifted, but still kept in a green-house ; and about May, when they are over a year old, they may be removed to the open border. It is very necessary, however, to form, whenever this grass is planted out, a trench all round it, like a little basin, in which some manure should be placed, and water poured freely in at all seasons, if the weather is the least dry. The feather-grass is another very beautiful specimen of the grass family. It can be ordered from almost every seedman's shop, but its being so common does not make it the less graceful. It grows naturally in Germany, on mountainous spots, where it is fully exposed to the heat of the sun. Old Gerade mentioned this grass two hundred years ago, and says it was worn in those days by gentlewomen, instead of a feather, in their hats. It certainly is very like a feather, for its awns are thickly set with fino diverging hairs. It should be divided in the spring, and can be very easily propagated. It likes an open situation and light soil , especially soil of a chalky nature. Its botanical name is Stipa Pennata. The rough-spiked, hard grass of the Levant is by no means wanting in beauty among a collection of grasses ; some persons assert that our wheat has been gradually raised from species of this genus. It is an annual, very hardy, and blooms in July. It should be sown in October in tolerably rich soil- thinly sown. The tussack grass, and different varieties of the Arundo, are also worth growing. The Arundo Donax is a noble-looking plant from South America ; it should be grown in masses in a moist place, for it is akin in its nature to a reed. It is propagated by parting the roots early in the spring, before the plant begins to grow. The stems die off in the antun, and then the bed ought to be well mulched (covered) over with short manure or dry fern-leaves, to save the roots from frost. But all grasses are beautiful. A well-kept lawn, or even a bit of grass-land in a front yard is one of the most satis388
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fying things the eye can rest on. Grass clothes the whole earth, weaving its fairy tassels with the wind, climbing up the steep mountain-passes where man's foot can never tread, fastening its slender roots between the shelving crags, and shedding its quiet beauty over the resting-place of death. Everywhere grass is beautiful. ONE OF THE NOVELTIES introduced, this season, in Paris, in the way of ornaments, is that of wearing round the throat and neck several rows of chains, either of gold or silver, or pearls, or jet, or beads of some sort or other, gradually descending, so as almost to cover the bare space left above the lace which forms the tucker. This fashion, joined to the immense quantity of beads worn on trimmings, shoulder-knots, girdles, and generally over the dress, gives a semi-barbaric look to modern evening toilets, not altogether in accordance with the proverbial good taste attributed, in matters of dress, to French women. There are, in fact, so many foreigners from all nations domiciled, this year, in Paris, that foreign habits and ways have been adopted in French circles quite as much as formerly these used to be imposed by them on others, and the consequence is an evident deterioration in the style of dress. One of the eccentric ladies of fashion in the higher walks of Parisian life, the Princess Metternich, is notorious for liking to introduce some new style, and then, when she sees it adopted by others in her set, discarding it altogether , so as to remain always aside of the field. At the Tuileries, lately, she wore a massive range of silver work, ending in a delicate fringe round her neck ; and at the ball of Baron Haussmann six or eight rows of gold chains, fastened by a brilliant butterfly of rubies, diamonds, and emeralds. Many ladies wore necklaces of the same sort, in various materials, of which imitation pearls are a favorite one. SEASONABLE DRESS.-We adapt our dress to spring, summer, autumn, and winter, but often with very little success, at least as far as comfort is concerned. It seems to be forgotten that a little extra looseness of dress will produce coolness, and that a thin covering in the heat of the sun fails to protect us from the heat. Thin, dark clothes, in a hot summer, are especially uncomfortable ; and a black hat, however light, is in some places enough to roast the brains when exposed to the full power of the sun's rays. Remember, as a rule, that light-colored clothes keep the heat in the body when the air is cold, and, when the sun is warm, keep the body from reaching the heat better than dark. Remember, also, that a woolen or cotton covering keeps the skin at an equable temperature better than linen. THE MT. CARMEL (Ill.) Democrat says :-" Peterson's Magazine does more to cultivate the taste and inform the minds and hearts of the wives, daughters, and sisters, whom it reaches, than any other agency that we are acquainted with."
ILL-IIUMOR is more often the result of indigestion than of anything else. Take plenty of exercise, and do not eat too much, and you will escape many an attack of spleca and bad temper. IN REMITTING FOR THIS MAGAZINE, adhere strictly to the directions we give. Otherwise, if the money is lost, wo cannot send the Magazine. GOING A-MAYING will recall to the old the time when they were young, and will rekindle in the young the love for fresh air, flowers, green grass, and sunshine.
