130 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



was made of the hose. The leading ingredient was spear grass, Poa annua, a small annual 

 grass that will grow three or four crops in succession during a single year, these succes- 

 sions mingling with each other. The color is emerald green, and very pleasing. I doubt 

 not the seeding was purely accidental. 



Under different names there are many lawn grass mixtures extensively advertised and 

 sold, often at two or three times the cost of the best one of all of them. Most of the mix- 

 tures contain some seeds of timothy, sheep's fescue, white clover, brown bent, sweet ver- 

 nal, perennial rye grass, meadow fox-tail, Jvme grass and weeds, while some of them con- 

 tain seeds of taller fescue, orchard grass and red canary grass, which are very objection- 

 able in any lawn. In this country, perennial rye grass starts very promptly after spring 

 sowing, making a fine show, but most of it never lives through a second winter, leaving 

 large open spaces to be filled by slower grasses or by weeds. A mixture of many sorts 

 of grasses is about sure to look spotted in rate of growth and in color, especially after a 

 few years. The mixture I recommend to all of my students and inquiring friends is as 

 follows: A bushel and a half or two bushels of ecjual parts of these five: June grass, June 

 grass, June grass, June grass, June grass, these five and nothing more. One can sow a 

 little white clover if he chooses. 



If the lawn isn't too large and one is in a hurry, or if dry weather is liable to appear, 

 he may get ciuicker results by scattering over a well-prepared surface small bits of closely 

 mown sod of June grass from an old pasture or roadside. These may be perhaps six to 

 ten inches apart, each way, and the ground rolled or tread down. This does not cost 

 as much as some might suppose. 



In the old college lawn referred to are many patches of common speedwell, Veronica 

 officinalis, or thyme-leaved speedwell, Veronica serpyllifolia, some of which are ten to 

 twenty feet and even forty feet long. These look fairly well, but they are soon disfigured 

 when stepped on. In one place I covmted twenty-two patches of creeping thjine which 

 are spreading, som-e of them in groups twelve feet long, with scattering June gra.ss mixed 

 in. They are interesting little plants. 



NaiTow leaved plantain, Plant ago lanceolata, is more or less abundant in different places. 

 The small tufts of leaves can be tolerated, but the central flower stalks nm up so very 

 quickly after the mower clips them off that they are unsightly and too tall for the lawn 

 mower to cut. Dandelions, too, are abundant, and disliked except by children in early 

 spring. 



Pnmella vulgaris, self-heal, of the mint family, is as common as any of the above and 

 a weedy plant. If you had never seen it, you could have little conception of the unique 

 appearance of patches of the common yarrow in the lawn. Such yarrow is very pretty. 

 I know of several patches, one of which is circular and eleven feet in diameter, with others 

 smaller and all spreading as June grass and sweet vernal give way. 



There are patches of plantain-leaved everlasting that disfigures the lawn. If, per- 

 chance, some of it had been introduced, we should see in this lawn many other creeping 

 w^eeds, such as gill-over-the-ground, bouncing bet, several chick-weeds, St. John's wort, 

 Geranium pusillum, wild madder, oxeye daisy, tansy, two or three hawkweeds, money- 

 wort, periwinkle, toad-flax, cyprus spurge, and others. 



About thirty years ago, after the present State Capitol was completed, the ground was 

 thoroughly drained, trenched, graded and seeded with a lawn grass mixture, two of the 

 chief ingredients of which were perennial rj^e grass and June grass. The rye grass made 

 a good show at once, but gradually disappeared during a space of three or four yeai"s. 

 The ground is stiff clay, and has apparently not been enriched since the lawn made a 

 start. 



In July, 1905, I made a careful examination of the lawn. The June grass is thin, liber- 

 ally interspersed with large patches of some other grasses and weeds, giving the lawn a 

 pale and spotted appearance. In the spaces most shaded by trees, red fescue is most 

 prominent. On the west side, mixed with other plants, narrow-leaved plantain is abund- 

 ant, scattered about, nowhere forming dense mats. It was a great pity the lawn grass seed' 

 was not examined by an expert, to prevent mistakes of this sort. The common mouse- 

 ear chickweed is conspicuous in numerous patches, also the creeping crowfoot, the latter 

 bearing some yellow flowers, Canada thistle and bull thistle, common mallow, broad- 

 leaved plantain, spotted spurge. Geranium pusillum, knot grass, common chickweed, 

 and very likely many more. Black medick appears in many places, creeping about much 

 like white clover, which makes more or less display, depending on the nature of the season. 

 Common and thyme-leaved speedwell are conspicuous in certain places. Of all the patches 

 of weeds on the lawn, none are so large as those covered by self-heal, Prunella vulgaris, 

 a weed of the mint family. In some places these are one hundred feet long by ten feet 

 wide and of an irregidar shape, with an increasing number of smaller patches scattered 

 liberally about. 



