156 



THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 



But here comes a question. Is Sper- 

 gula pilifera the only plant that will do 

 it? What is that little thing that comes 

 in tufts in old peat beds, and very often in 

 pots containing peat or peaty mixtures 

 where the drainage is a little wrong ? Is 

 it not Sagina procumbens, that we root 

 out and fling on the muck heap in igno- 

 rance of its capabilities ? That makes 

 charming tufts on a bank, and some day 

 it may prove to be a lawn plant for sour 

 soils and worn-out peat, as Spergula pili- 

 fera is for the stubborn clay. Then in my 

 piece I can find several tufts of Spergula 



truly phenogamous, has the general ap- 

 pearance of a moss. Its habit is to grow 

 in close dense tufts, which never rise more 

 than an inch above the ground, but by 

 lateral extension, form a close elastic felt, 

 which not only bears the foot, but the 

 roller, and so it fulfils the requisite con- 

 ditions of a turf which requires no mow- 

 ing, and has a refreshing green hue all the 

 year round. The drawing, of which the 

 engraving is a copy, was made in July last 

 year, when my piece of Spergula was in 

 flower. It is represented in flower, in 

 order to enable amateurs to distinguish 



SPERGULA PILIFERA. 



subulata, which is of another tint of green 

 to pilifera, and for all I know as good a 

 thing if as largely dealt with. Then there 

 is Spergula nodosa, of more robust growth, 

 but still of a decidedly turf-making cha- 

 racter. How many such plants are there ? 



the true plant from another with which it 

 has been confounded, and which will pro- 

 bably be sent out by some of the trade 

 under the same name. This other plant 

 is Sagina procumbens, which also grows in 

 ; dense tufts of a deeper and bluer tint of 



SAGINA PROCUMBENS. 



Will Dr. Lindley come to the rescue with 

 a handful of botanical distinctions, and 

 will the Horticultural Society take all 

 these promising tufty plants in hand and 

 i ettle their values inter se, and as to their 

 several adaptabilities for tins or that soil, 

 and this or that climate? It will be seen 

 from the engraving that Spergula pilifera 

 s a plant of humble growth, and though 



green ; but instead of producing a distinct 

 white, salver-shaped blossom, has a gray 

 blossom, in which the calyx is larger than 

 the corolla, whereas in true Spergula, the 

 corolla is snowy white, larger than the 

 calyx, and distinctly held up above the 

 green turf. There are other points of 

 difference discernible by those who have 

 no botanical knowledge, as will be seen 



