28 MISSOURI BOTANICAL, GARDEN BULLETIN 
Perennial weeds, such as the dandelion (Taraxacum offe- 
cinale), plantain (Plantago Rugelwi), and burdock (Arctium 
Lappa), may be eut out with a knife, or they may be erad- 
ieated by spraying with a solution consisting of two pounds 
of iron sulphate dissolved in one gallon of water. This should 
be applied in a very fine spray, five or six times during the 
season, preferably on a bright day to prevent it being washed 
off by rain. It should be applied two or three days after 
mowing, and the lawn should not be mown until two or three 
days after. This solution will discolor clothes and stone 
walks. 
All lawns should have a top dressing of well-decomposed 
stable manure at least once every three or four years, and 
other fertilizers should be used whenever the lawn needs 
enriching. Sheep manure and wood ashes are excellent for 
the dressing of lawns. They may be used, mixed in equal 
parts, at the rate of 200 pounds to the acre. In the spring, 
before growth commences, is the best time for application. 
Bone meal is a slow-working but very good lawn fertilizer and 
is applied in fall or winter at the rate of 400 pounds to the 
acre. Air-slaked lime or limestone dust will neutralize acid- 
ity in soils and make them more suitable for the growth of 
Kentucky blue-grass. Lime should be used as a winter dress- 
ing at the rate of 35 or 40 bushels to the acre. Nitrate of soda 
is a very quick-working fertilizer which makes the grass grow 
very fast and greatly intensifies its color. This should be ap- 
plied in early spring, just as growth commences, at the rate 
of 200 pounds to the acre. To prevent the chemicals from 
absorbing the moisture of the soil or from the plant tissues 
the application should be made just before a rain or after 
watering. Commercial fertilizers should not be applied at the 
time of seeding, as they may destroy the seed. 
JAMES GURNEY 
Mr. James Gurney, head gardener emeritus to the Missouri 
Botanical Garden, died at the age of eighty-nine, on Jan- 
uary 15, 1920. 
Mr. Gurney came to St. Louis from England in 1867 and 
within a few days after his arrival entered into the employ of 
Mr. Shaw. From that time until Mr. Shaw’s death, he was 
actively engaged in developing the Garden along the lines 
laid down by Mr. Shaw, and many of the early collections of 
plants and shrubs and trees were the result of Mr. Gurney’s 
thought and eare. In 1903 Mr. Gurney was relieved from ac- 
tive duty at the Garden, devoting all of his time to Tower 
