179 



LAYERING. 



it is propagated by cuttings of the 

 young wood planted in autumn ; 

 and seeds are sold in the seed-shops. 

 Lava'tera. — Malvdcece. — A 

 very showy annual, common in 

 flov/er-gardens, which only requires 

 sowing in the open border in March 

 or April. There are two other 

 species which are shrubs. — See 

 Tree Mallow. 



Lawn. — Smooth mown turf, when 

 of any extent in pleasui-e -grounds, is 

 called a lawn ; and its chief beauties 

 are the uniformity of its surface, and 

 uniformity in the kinds of grasses 

 which cover it, and which produce an 

 uniform tone of green. These objects 

 are produced by first preparing the 

 soil, which should be a sandy loam, 

 or a loam slightly inclining to sand, of 

 afoot or more in depth, and equally 

 drained thi-oughout, so as everywhere 

 to retain the same degree of moistxire. 

 Next, the same mixture of grasses 

 should be so wn throughout, and lastly 

 they should be mown at regular in- 

 tervals, say of a fortnight during the 

 summer months, and a month during 

 spring and autumn. Whenever coarse 

 j grasses, or broad-leaved plants of any 

 i kind appear, they should be taken 

 i out with the spud; and whenever 

 i any spot becomes bare, the soil should 

 I be renewed, and pieces of fresh turf 

 I introduced, or seeds sown ; also 

 I when worms disfigure the surface, 

 the castings which they throw up 

 should be scraped off, and the 

 surface watered with lime-water, 

 by which all the worms will be 

 destroyed. In general, it is im- 

 , possible to produce a fine lawn, 

 ' except in an open, airy situation, 

 I with a soil which wiU retain 

 I moisture during summer ; for in 

 j close pent-up places, surrounded by 

 : walls or hedges, and under the drip 

 I of trees and shrubs, no kind of grass 

 j v/ill grow. In such places, all that 

 j can be done is to encourage the 



i growth of moss ; which will spring 

 up naturally wherever the soil is 

 [ kept suf&ciently moist ; but where 

 ! it is very dry, the branches of the 

 trees and shrubs should be allowed 

 to trail on the surface, so as com- 

 pletely to cover it. In some situa- 

 tions, where the branches of the 

 trees and shnibs do not lie close to 

 the surface, or where they are chiefly 

 of deciduous kinds, the surfaces may 

 be clothed with Ivy or Periwinkle. 

 In very small gardens, grass-plots 

 are generally formed by rolls of 

 turf, taken from the surfaces of some 

 adjoining pasture-field or meadow ; 

 but when gi'ass-seed is sown, the 

 following kinds are considered the 

 best : — Fox-tail ]\Ieadow grass, 

 Alopecurus pratensu, vvhich should 

 form one-fourth of the Avhole ; the 

 Sweet-scented Spring-grass, -4 nfAoic- 

 dnthum odordtam, which gives the 

 fragrance to new hay; and Pba 

 pratensis, the Common Meadow- 

 grass. To these may be added the 

 Crested Dog's-tail-grass, Cynosurus 

 Cristdtus ; and the hard Fescue- 

 grass, Festitca duriascula, with 

 about the proportion of a bushel of 

 v/hite clover-seed to four bushels of 

 the other mixture ; and this quantity 

 will suffice for an acre of ground. 



Layering is a mode of propagating 

 used both in the case of ligneous and 

 herbaceous plants, and the operation 

 is performed by choosing a young 

 shoot of the current or the preceding 

 year, bending it down to the ground, 

 and covering a portion of it near the 

 extremity of the shoot with an inch 

 or more of soil, previously fixing it 

 there with a hooked stick. In general, 

 layers of woody plants made in au- 

 tumn may be taken off about the 

 same season the following year ; but 

 some trees and shiubs, such as Mag- 

 nolias, the Tree Ivy, kc, require to 

 remain on the tree for two years. 

 Roses layered in the summer season 



