THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



151 



in other words, the .stems are becomiug 

 decumbent, and promise very shortly to 

 meet from tuft to tuft, and so complete 

 the surfacing. 



I consider this, as far as it has gone, a 

 fair experiment, and I confess myself al- 

 ready more than satisfied as to the result. 

 Tliis autumn, I fully expect to walk over a 

 carpet of Spergula, to cut roses from the 

 little collection which this subject induced 

 me to make room for. I have not the least 

 doubt the appearance of the flat circle with 

 the inner circle of roses will be as good as 

 any -we could have immediately under the 

 windows. But what is Spergula ^llifera ? 

 There's the rub. Look in your books, 

 and where will you find it ? Well, look 

 among your peat plants, or even among 

 pot plants of any kind, which are getting 

 rather sour and mossy, and ten to one but 

 you find a little wiry-looking alpine sort of 

 thing, v/ith diminutive blossoms, consist- 

 ing of a salver-shaped green calyx, and 

 tiny white corolla within, conspicuous 

 enough to be easily detected, yet too shabby 

 even to have attracted your notice be- 

 fore. Take up one of these tufts, and pot 

 it in a bit of fresh sandy peat, give plenty 

 of water, and keep it in the shade, and 

 very soon you shall have a springy velvety 

 tuft, of a lovely emerald green, and by the 

 time it gets,' to be three or four inches 

 in diameter, you will perfectly understand, 

 by its velvety softness and elasticity when 

 pressed with the hand, that a lawn of it 

 would be the very fulness of garden luxury. 

 I've got sucli a tuft at this time, which I 

 potted to show friends who came to in- 

 quire about the nev;- substitute for grass, 

 and it is now turned out on a little rockery, 

 along with some very choice ferns and saxi- 

 frages, all of the same diminutive order. 

 As my circle of Spergula makes progress, 

 the resemblance between the plants and 

 my little tuft is so close that, for the pre- 

 present, I ventm-e to say they are identical, 

 and that Spergula pilifera is now to be found 

 all over England, and especially where 

 Jungermannia and Marchantia abound. 

 Perhaps there is enough among theBagshot 

 peat to surface all the lawns round London. 

 For the present, I say, they are identical, 

 and I say the same to Mr. A. Robertson, of 

 Paisley, who has sent me a specimen in. a 

 letter, of the same Spergula as that which 

 you will find everywhere in shady places, 

 where the soil is peat, ^'ay, I saw about 

 five-and-twenty yards of it on the top of a 

 wall, at Tottenham, this summer ; it looked 

 starved and miserable, and no one unac- 

 customed to note the characters of plants 

 would believe it to be the same as my vel- 



vet tuft of emerald green. Like other 

 t'nings, it varies its character with circum- 

 stances. Until I learn from an authority 

 no less reliable than Dr. Lindley, that the 

 plants differ, I shall believe that Mr. Ro- 

 bertson's tuft, and my own tuft, and 

 Messrs. Henderson's donation to the circle 

 of garden excellencies, are all one and the 

 same, and that Spergula pilifera is the old 

 Spurry, which almost every botanist, and 

 certainly every gardener, despised, until 

 the announcement of its virtues electrified 

 us all. According to De CandoUe, it is a 

 native of Corsica, and that induces me to 

 reserve to myself the right to correct, if 

 needful, such of these remarks as are mat- 

 ters of opinion. 



But coming back to matters of fact, I 

 feel certain that the common Spergula of 

 the peat districts will make a perfect la^vn. 

 Collect the plants, dib them a foot apart, 

 in a shady part of the kitchen garden, give 

 plenty of water, and in course of time you 

 will obtain a stock ready to plant whenever 

 you want a piece of emerald carpeting. It 

 will be cheaper and a far less difficult 

 matter, of course, to go to head-quarters 

 at once, and get seeds or plants from 

 Messrs. Henderson. You will thus secui-e 

 plants by thousands, for a mere trifle, in- 

 stead of poking about to pick up dozens ; 

 but it is, nevertheless, a point of interest 

 to know that we have been rooting out 

 from pots, and throwing away in disgust 

 what, after all, will confer upon those who 

 have now introduced it to notice as much 

 fame as can possibly attend a horticultural 

 discovery. " There is nothing new under 

 the sun!" We are not presented with a 

 new plant, but have suggested a new use 

 for an old one. If we are not indebted to 

 Mr. Summers, then, for a botanical novelty, 

 we are indebted to him for an idea. Let 

 him have the praise and the reward. 



It wdl readily be concluded, from 

 what has been said thiis far, that Spergula 

 pll'ifera may be raised with certainty from 

 seed, without artificial heat, and with the 

 least possible trouble. It likes moisture, 

 and rapidly makes root in a rich sandy 

 soil, and will do famotisly in peat. I 

 know many who sowed it in the open 

 ground, but have not learnt how they get 

 on with it, and from my own experience 

 judge that such a plan v^as more trouble- 

 some than at first appeared. This plant 

 is at first so minute that weeds would 

 overtake and choke it, unless it had almost 

 daily attention. Therefore I advise my 

 friends to sow in pans, plant out on a 

 shady bed or border, and finally plant 

 when the patches begin to get tufted. 



