1882. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



261 



nient. I believe that when the same amount of 

 study is bestowed on this class of plants that has 

 been on the tender plants, equally as good and 

 far more interesting effects can be produced. 



Grass beds are exceedingly graceful and 

 pretty. The Eulalia Japonica, Zebrina and 

 Variegata are both remarkably pretty; Erian- 

 thus Raven life, Festuca glauca and many others 

 are fine. 



The lilies and all hardy bulbs are included in 

 this class. The Tulip is well known as a showy 

 early bedding plant. 



The great variety of beautiful Phlox, in shades 

 of pink, purple, red, crimson, salmon and white, 

 variously marked, are being added to every 

 year by foreign cultivators, and the old single 

 Hollyhock has been transformed into one of our 

 most beautiful flowers, with double and single 

 varieties, having shades almost black, copper, 

 rose, yellow, red, white and intermediate shades. 

 These and the Larkspurs have been greatly im- 

 proved, mostly by foreign cultivators, but they 

 are verj"- little known here. A large list of very 

 fine hardy herbaceous plants might be men- 

 tioned in the cla ses spoken of, but I will not 

 take the room in this article. 



There is a broad field for improvement in 

 many of the herbaceous plants by hybridization, 

 selection of seeds and the cultivation of sports, 

 and it is to be hoped that many cultivators will 

 experiment on this class of plants and make 

 known their results through this paper or 

 otherwise. 



BERMUDA CRASS AND LAWNS. 



BY MARJID DIGRAM. 



The editor of The Rural Neio Yorker, in the 

 January number of the Gardener's Monthly, 

 says, that he planted a sample of Tennessee 

 Bermuda grass in a dry muck-and-sand soil, and 

 that it throve wonderfully, that is to say, it 

 spread in one summer over a space fully seven 

 feet in diameter. A very good record, certainly, 

 to which the editor adds, as a further recom- 

 mendation of the grass, that it would probably 

 prove hardy in as trying a summer and winter 

 climate as that of Central New York. 



The sand-and-muck soil was the feature of the 

 experiment that attracted my attention, and I 

 wondered how rich a soil, this particular one, 

 used and mentioned by Mr. Carman, was. Sup- 

 pose the muck was quite absent, or present in 

 but "small quantity ; for instance, we will say, 

 such a soil were tried as mav be found in the 



yards and gardens of our New Jersey seaside 

 villages and summer resorts. Would it answer? 



If such slightly fertilized earth as this would 

 satisfy the demands of the plant, then the Ber- 

 muda grass of Tennessee is just the bit of vege- 

 tation needed in these places to serve the two- 

 fold purpose of giving the greenness or floor of 

 positive color obliquely beneath the eye which 

 that organ naturally demands, and to cover from 

 sight the now almost universal surface of glaring, 

 eye-irritating whiteness. 



At Saint Augustine, on the coast of Florida, 

 some several years since, I saw in a yard sur- 

 rounding the residence of a brother of the late 

 Vice-President Hamlin, a nicely trimmed area 

 of lawn, the grass used in which was called 

 the Meskit or Muskit. This grass has either a 

 running rootstock, or a creeping stem, spreads 

 rapidly and is very persistent where once set. 

 Though very coarse, it in this case, completely 

 covered the ground and was kept in excellent 

 appearance by the frequent use of the lawn 

 mower. Unfortunately the Meskit is, I believe, 

 a semi-tropical grass, or it would answer per- 

 fectly the needs and demands of a long strip of 

 sandy seashore, that, in fact, which, commenc- 

 ing at Squan, continues indefinitely southward 

 into the gulf. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Single Dahlias. — There are few flowers more 

 beautiful, or which make a more brilliant show 

 in the fall of the year than the highly improTed 

 double dahlias. They require some care to cul- 

 tivate properly, or they degenerate ; some, how- 

 ever, more readily than others. In old times 

 no one would look at a single dahlia, but the 

 florist has placed his improving fingers on them, 

 and with such grand success that they are 

 actually competing successfully for popularity 

 with the double ones. Last year there were 

 only orange and scarlet shades, but we hear 

 there are now a large variety, and such as to 

 command admiration wherever seen. 



EosE Baroness Rothschild. — This was the 

 great sensation among the roses exhibited at 

 the June meeting of the Germantown Horticul- 

 tural Society. It was a sort of salmon pink in 

 color, four inches across, and as " double as a 

 rose." 



Datura arborea.— In a garden in Pittsburg 

 recently we saw a plant of Datura arborea, 

 which must have been eight feet high, and it 



