i885.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



167 



folia — red-leaved Rose. It is a native of Dauphiny, 

 chiefly in the Vodges, and the humid mountains of 

 Auvergne. 



Passion Flower, Constance Elliott.— A 

 pure white variety raised from the old Passiflora 

 ccerulea, has appeared in England. It is sweet- 

 scented, and will stand a few degrees of frost 

 without injury. 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Hyacinth Bulbs. — "T. S. G." asks: "Are 

 Hyacinth bulbs that have bloomed in pots of earth 

 in the house of any value ? How shall they be 

 treated to bloom again ; either in pots or in the 

 open ground ?" 



[If treated as they do in Holland, they would 

 come in again in time. The young offshoots are 

 planted in rich alluvial soil, and not allowed to 

 bloom till several years, but if just planted out in 

 the garden to take care of themselves, the future 

 blooms will be small and inferior. — Ed. G. M.] 



Care of Lawns. — We have called attention to 

 the well-known fact, that no plant can live without 

 green leaves, and plenty of light to keep them 

 green ; and then to the obvious fact, that if we cut 

 grass low and keep it cut low, small creeping 

 weeds that could have no chance to grow if the 

 grass were long, will thrive and flourish, ultimately 

 killing the grass which the scythe or mower has 

 kept down. An eminent landscape gardener had 

 his attention called to these views and writes to 

 his correspondent in a southern state as follows : 



" I have read the articles in the Gardeners' 

 Monthly in regard to lawns. Mr. Meehan's ex- 

 perience does accord with our experience, in the 

 cutting of lawns. The frequent cutting of grass 

 strengthens the roots of the smaller weeds and 

 gives them power to drive out the coarser grasses. 

 It is true that the crab grass, fox-tail, buck-horn, 

 &c., creep into lawns late in the season when the 

 finer kinds have considerably slackened their 

 growth. But to stop cutting at that time would 

 be to abandon the field to the enemy. You know 

 how quickly the fox-tail and buck-horn spring up 

 and go to seed, and can imagine the rapid repro- 

 duction of these pests that would take place were 

 no check placed upon their growth. Of course 

 you have not any trouble of this kind ; the Ber- 

 muda grass taking possession to the exclusion of 

 everything else. The making of a good lawn de- 

 pends chiefly, as Mr. Meehan says, on the proper 

 preparation of the ground, the selection of proper 



seed and the subsequent care ; but also, to a con- 

 siderable extent, on climatic conditions. 



"At Newport, R. I., they have the finest lawns 

 in America and they are cut not less often than 

 once a week, but frequently as often as once in 

 four or five days. In the South, where the Ber- 

 muda has control, there is no problem. It is only 

 in the North where the trouble presents itself. The 

 addition of a small application of salt is an excel- 

 lent practice, though very old. Salt induces mois- 

 ture, and also benefits the grass by the chlorine 

 and soda which it contains." 



[This excellent letter on general lawn culture, 

 shows how hard it is to get any practice down to 

 rule. Instead of rules for practice, we usually 

 prefer to offer principles and let the practice take 

 care of itself. The principle involved here is that 

 if we check the stronger plants— grass say for in- 

 stance, — weaker plants — Speedwells for illustration 

 —the great pests of lawns here — will be strengthen- 

 ed. But we don't want to strengthen these, but to 

 weaken them ; therefore in practice, if we desire 

 to weaken these dwarf creeping weeds, we must 

 let the grass grow fast enough to overshadow and 

 shade them. 



But in our correspondent's case we have stronger 

 and coarser grasses that we do not want, struggling 

 with the weaker grass which we desire to 

 strengthen. The cutting-back practice here is not 

 in accord with the principle, but the reverse. We 

 desire to encourage the weaker, not to destroy it 

 as in the former case. Hence the practice of 

 letting the grass grow in the fall would be, as our 

 correspondent says, very bad practice. It is just 

 what we should recommend, and, is in accord and 

 not in opposition to the principle laid down. — Ed. 

 G. M.] 



Double Fringed Petunias. — Mr. Rupp, Shire- 

 mantown, Pa., writes : " I send to you by this 

 mail, three flowers of my new Petunias I told you 

 about last winter in Lancaster. The one in the 

 middle is only about two-thirds the average size ; 

 the plant I cut it from had at least fifty flowers 

 and buds at one time. I think this the finest of 

 them. I have six varieties. I grew them from 

 seed and don't think there are any like them in 

 the country, and probably not any where. Every 

 one who saw them gave them the highest praise." 



[These are the double fringed forms that we 

 noted recently as being offered this season by the 

 Prussian seedsmen. These are the first living 

 examples we have seen. They are particularly 

 attractive.— Ed. G. M.] 



