EXTKHIMEXT STAT1(.)\ HKl'OK'T. 493 



Tlie "Khodi' Island lU'iit" has held the first ])hu'(' I'or I'oiir years, 

 and gives a very satisfactory turf for a lawn. The texture is line, 

 but, in dry spells, it sometimes turns brown. In the '"Wood Meadow"' 

 the makers of fine lawns will find a valualjle grass ; the turf of this 

 has improved gradtially from the start, eight years ago. The "Ken- 

 tucky Blue" is another grass that has proved very satisfactory and 

 secured, a high rating since 1898. Aside from "Eedtop" and "Peren- 

 nial Eye," which have been poor, the other four species have main- 

 tained a middle place in the list of varying percentages of merit. 



In these plots the weeds have been permitted to grow, the chief 

 of which during the whole season is the dandelion, and in autumn a 

 crab grass fills all vacancies, and is much in evidence in some of the 

 plots. 



At one time during the season the plots were left uncut for a time 

 to permit an estimate being made of the mixing that had gone on 

 among the grasses of the various plots. It was thus determined that 

 the "Kentucky Blue Grass" had spread so much that it made up fully 

 50 per cent, of the first three plots and Plot 9, and was even more 

 largely represented in Plots 5, 7 and 8. It had not made any head- 

 way in Plot 4 where the "Ehode Island Bent" held nearly full sway. 

 A little of the Orchard Grass {Dadylis glomerata L.) had worked into 

 Plots 1 and 2. 



FRINGED PHLOXES. 



Phloxes, and particularly Phlox Drummondii Hook., have received 

 attention for the past three years, and several species are now repre- 

 sented in the Experiment Area. The large genus Phlox, of seventy 

 species, is so named from the Greek for flame on account of the bright 

 red color of many of the flowers. There are four species in the State, 

 one of which, the "Moss Pink" {Phlox suhnlata L.), is the early 

 bloomer that covers many otherwise nearly bare hillsides with a pink 

 mantle and is among the first showy flowers of the season. In the 

 sotuh and west the representatives are much more numerous, as in 

 Alabama* there are eleven species. 



The species are herbs and generally perennial, with P. Drummondii 

 an annual and a striking exception to the rule. It is of this species 

 that the following is concerned. The Drummond Phlox is a low, erect 

 and much-branching plant, with long leaves, more or less clasping the 



* Plant Life of Alabama, Dr. Charles Mohr, 1901, pages 684-686. 



