372 THE FORMATION OF LAWNS FROM SEED 



one of the best grasses for enduring drought it will thrive under 

 the shade of trees. 



TRI FOLIUM REPENS PERENNE (Perennial White Clover] is 

 indigenous all over the country, and may be seen growing freely 

 by roadsides ; indeed, it grows better in poor than in rich land. 

 The seed will lie dormant at some depth in the soil, and yet 

 germinate freely when brought to the surface. Warm moist 

 summers favour its development, and then, if too abundant, it 

 may spread so much as to prove injurious to other herbage 

 which can ill be spared. It must be employed with great 

 judgment. 



LOTUS CORNICULATUS (Birdsfoot Trefoil}. A strictly peren- 

 nial plant which thrives in the poorest soils, and is capable 

 of enduring the most extreme drought. It does not attain 

 maturity until the second year after sowing. This clover 

 possesses the merit of succeeding upon land which is * clover- 

 sick.' 



TRIFOLIUM MINUS ( Yellow Suckling}. The very small foliage 

 of this clover gives it an especial value for lawns. It is a quick- 

 growing plant and will succeed on dry and gravelly soils. In 

 summer it shows abundantly just when the grasses are thin and 

 the dense foliage of clover is most welcome. The habit is 

 trailing. 



ACHILLEA MILLEFOLIUM (Yarrow, or Milfoil) is neither a 

 grass nor a clover. It is indigenous in many districts, and may 

 be seen in some of the finest and most beautiful lawns in the 

 kingdom. When all other herbage is brown Yarrow remains 

 green. Still we cannot recommend it for general use. Unless 

 the turf is kept down with scrupulous care, Yarrow soon becomes 

 coarse and unsightly, and its employment in a lawn must be 

 considered quite exceptional. 



QUANTITY OF SEED. We need scarcely allude to the necessity 

 of sowing new and pure seed, strong in germinating power. The 

 grass and clover seeds which are suitable for producing a lawn are 

 nearly all expensive, some of them very expensive. But there must 

 be no stint of seed on that account, for fine grasses do not tiller out 

 to anything like the same extent as the larger pasture varieties, and 

 therefore a much more liberal seeding is imperative ; never less than 

 three bushels per acre, and we do not consider a sowing of four 

 bushels per acre to be excessive. The outlay for this quantity of 

 seed will be well repaid by the rapid clothing of the ground ; and 



