SUBSTITUTES FOR GRASS LAWNS 129 



tempt anyone to rob the vines. For small banks this yellow-flowered 

 species (Fragaria indica) is very desirable, but the first mentioned is on 

 the whole better for considerable areas, as it seems to hold its color better 

 and more uniformly. 



Trailing Roses. Several species and popular varieties of running 

 roses have long been used as ground-covers, even involving elaborate sys- 

 tems of pegging down the canes, etc. This involves a great amount of 

 labor and constant pruning away of spent flower-stems when floriferous 

 kinds are used. Even the annual bloomers call for much care because the 

 canes help each other upward and the whole area is apt to become a 

 moundy expanse of brambles in a very short time which, except with the 

 Banksians, which are thornless, almost defy invasion unless one encases 

 his legs in lengths of stove-pipe. Narrow strips of prostrate roses are 

 more practicable because they can be cut over from the sides. The best 

 rose for a ground-cover, in the writer's observation, is Rosa Wichuraiana, 

 Its small-leaved, glossy foliage is free from rust and mildew and holds a 

 bright green color for a long time. But even this is most satisfactory in 

 borders and parkings. 



English Ivy. A plant found very available for covering dry banks, 

 and for considerable areas also, in Berkeley, is the English ivy. At the 

 University they planted a great deal of it in such situations many years 

 ago as an experiment and have been so gratified with the way in which it 

 covered the exposed surfaces and maintained its green with a minimum 

 of moisture that at present there is a good deal of it on the University 

 campus. Its color is too dark and its associations somewhat funereal, but 

 it 'keeps down flat and only needs water enough for an occasional bath in 

 the bay climate. It is, however, shrubby and coarse and will not do to 

 walk over, but otherwise will hold green where no plant of a grass char- 

 acter will grow during the summer. It is propagated by putting in cuttings 

 about two feet apart at any time of the year when the ground is a little 

 moist, and they will root readily. English ivy grows well, in the coast 

 region at least, either in sun or shade running under the dense shade of 

 trees and climbing their trunks, unless hoed out for the good of the trees. 

 It is apt to be badly infested with the black scale and may on this account 

 be very undesirable near fruit plantings. 



Lippia. This plant is at the present time the most widely accepted 

 substitute for a grass lawn and it has many advantages. It is very close to 

 the ground and can be clipped with a lawn mower and thus kept to uniform 

 surface; it is very drouth-resistant and does not show dust badly; it 

 spreads very rapidly, but is not such a pest as some running grasses and is 

 easily destroyed if not wanted for it roots from surface-running stems and 

 does not shoot from underground stems or running roots. It does not 

 produce seed and therefore less likely to appear where not desired. It is of 

 good bright color superior in that respect to the other plants mentioned 



