ARUNDO COLORATA. ( sp.Pian, Calamagrostis varieg. Gmelin.
Coloured Reed.
Spec. Char. Panicle branched; branches in alternate pairs; florets without an arista.
A eu n d o colorata is a tall and conspicuous aquatic in many places, appearing at first like a gigantic
spike of the Holcus lanatus (which in similar stations acquires occasionally a very large size), and the
panicle is frequently as highly coloured: by cultivation the leaves of this Reed-grass become striped in
a very handsome manner, and the plant is then known in almost every cottage garden under the name
o f |painted Lady-grass,’ and in that variegated state is one of the favourite plants of our Welsh peasantry,
and with Gnaphalium margaritaceum * is chosen to decorate (in the few places where that
amiable and pleasing habit has not faded to neglect) the graves of their departed friends.
The creation of the genus Calamagrostis, by Gmelin, was wholly unnecessary, and pernicious, as
he separates the British Arundines, a most natural order, and well according race of plants; all the
species o f which this genus consists are vested with tufts of wool at the base o f the floret, acting as
alae, or wings to the seed, which being matured, the calyx valves fall off, leaving the seed sitting
(wrapped up in the corolla) with an expanded cincture of light cottony matter, which being seized
by the first vagrant breeze, is detached from the receptacle, and
* Plants a. race far from their native soil ’
Such are the means by which the seeds of four of the species are dispersed j the fifth, Arundo arenaria,
though retaining the natural character, has the wool so short that probably it does not serve as a
vehicle for conveyance, nor is it required, as A . arenaria is a local pldnt, and of utility only in peculiar
situations; and the soil in which that plant vegetates being light, and always changing its surface with
every wind, immediately as the seed drops from the husks, it is'covered in an earth particularly
adapted to its nature, a soil in which it only can thrive, and the wind that should convey it beyond
the drifting sand, would remove it to an inutile station, and ultimate destruction.
A, the Calyx.
B, the Corolla.
• Perhaps we must consider this plant as a native of S. Wales alone, and confined to a small district, the place where
Mr. Ray first discovered it, the banks of the Rymny, in Brecknockshire: in a few places on the road between Merthyr and
Caerphilly this pretty ‘ everlasting’ will without difficulty be found by the botanic traveller.