NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



39 



red top,) is the most common grass which is sold 

 in the seed stores for making lawns. This seed is 

 generally a mixture of various grasses — including 

 different kinds of bent grass, Poa or meadow grass, 

 and numerous others. 1 have picked up a dozen 

 kinds of grasses from the product of one quart of 

 what was sold for the common red top. I regard 

 this circumstance, however, as beneficial rather 

 than otherwise, providing it contains none of the 

 coarser grasses. A fine sward cannot be produced 

 with one or two kinds of grasses, but by a mixture 

 of many kinds, providing they have the same hab- 

 its of growth, as some grasses are late, some early 

 some are green at one season, and some at another. 

 Some will stand frost, as the PoaNervata — a hardy 

 variety of American meadow grass, but does not 

 bear drought as well as many others. Others will 

 bear the drought, as the Poa Nemoralis — Agrostis 

 Vars — the Hard Fescue — Red Fescue — and Sheep 

 Fescue — the Trifolium repens — and Filiforme or 

 small yellow clover, which if sown on a gravel heap 

 would soon cover it with verdure. 



It is very absurd to fancy that a fine, permanent 

 lawn can be made with any one or two kinds of 

 grass, however good in themselves. If you will 

 cut a turf one foot square from anypeice of fine nat- 

 ural pasture, or grass land, you will find it com- 

 posed of thirty or forty different kinds of plants, but 

 none of the coarser grasses. They are nearly of 

 one nature, habit, and one strength, and approxima- 

 ting to one general character, which is caused part- 

 ly by the compactness of the sward, and partly by 

 tJie continual cropping of the surface, both circum- 

 stances tending to exterminate the coarser herbage, 

 and promote an equality of growth among the plants 

 composing the sward. R. B. Leuchars. 



Remarks. — We would call particulor attention 

 to the preceding article. It comes from one who 

 has had the advantages of experience and observa- 

 tion both in the old country and in this. The fail- 

 ure of lawns in our country is not owing to insur- 

 mountable obstacles in regard to climate and soil, 

 or any other unfavorable circumstances naturally, 

 but to the want of intelligence and adaptation of 

 means to circumstances. As there is now a grow- 

 ing attention to ornamental culture, and rural em- 

 bellishment, we trust that this subject will receive 

 due consideration, and that we shall have some sys- 

 tem of action that will insure success. 



For the Tfcw England Farmer. 



COLLECTING AND TRANSPLANTING 

 WILD FLOWERS. 



Mr. Editor: — In collecting materials for a flow- 

 er garden, one of the most important requisites is 

 to obtain such plants as combine a good degree of 

 hardiness and ease of culture, with beauty of form 

 and color. 



A neglect, in this respect, has often proved the 

 source of failure and disappointment, and caused 

 the inexperienced tlorist to give up in despair, with 

 the genuine Yankee conclusion that "it costs more 

 than it comes to." 



The best place to obtain hardy plants is in our 

 own forests and meadows, as native plants require 

 no acclimation, and a really beautiful flower is none 

 the less so because it grows wild in our fields and 



woodlands. All that is necessary to insure success 

 is a little care in tran.splanting, and to place them 

 as n^ar as practicable in a situation similar with 

 resp:^ct to shade and moisture to that in which they 

 were found in their wild state. The season for re- 

 moving them, is, as far as my experience goe-s, of 

 little consequence. I have succeeded as well with 

 plants in full bloom as at any other time, and as 

 this is the most favorable time to select the finest 

 specimens, I prefer it to being confined to spring 

 or fall. 



The surest method is, first to ascertain the usual 

 form and length of the roots, and then with a gar- 

 den trowel, (an implement which every farmer 

 should have,) remove the earth in such a manner 

 as to leave the great?r portion of the root with a 

 quantity of soil attached. The place for its recep- 

 tion should be filled with water, and the root with 

 the earth adhering, immersed and covered with soil, 

 leaving a lieht depression to retain water on the 

 surface. When the work is done in warm weather 

 in summer, the plants should be shaded and fre- 

 quently watered. 



Tliose plants which blossom late in the season, 

 should have their position indica ed by a stake, as 

 they frequently die down to the ground and do not 

 re-appear till late in the spring. 



Among the earliest wild flowers entitled to a 

 place in the garden, is the Liverleaf or Hepatica 

 Americana, the beautiful blossoms of which hardly 

 wait for the snow to leave the ground before they 

 exhibit themselves above the surface. The flowers 

 are sweet scented, cup shaped, and the color varies 

 from white to pink, blue and delicate purple. It 

 is perfectly hardy, and in this section, is usually 

 found growing on ledgy east side hills. 



Following after this, comes the plant called 

 Dutchman's Breeches, Diclytra, Formosa and D. 

 eximea; the la.st of v.hich is the finest; the leaf, as 

 well as the flower, is quite ornamental, and the 

 roots of the first named variety are bulbous, resem- 

 bling small potatoes. 



The Trillium crecixnn, False Wake-robin, is 

 another spring flower whose white petals with pink 

 centres present quite a delicate appearance; this 

 plant usually grows in rather low or moist ground. 



About the last of spring or first of summer, the 

 singular looking blossoms of the Ladies' Slipper, 

 Cypripedium, show their drooping heads peeping 

 from beneath the hedgerow; and although the lan- 

 guage of this flower is, "You are too wild for a 

 domestic companion," yet, if placed in a shady sit- 

 uation, it is easily domesticated, and the oddity of 

 its appearance gives it a claim to a place in the 

 flower garden; there are two varieties, one yellow, 

 the other pink. 



But the most beautiful summer flower is the Car- 

 dinal Flower, Lobelia Cardinalis, which is found 

 growing on the banks of streams and in moist 

 places; it produces a long spike of brilliant red 

 flowers which increase in size by cultivation, and 

 the leaves are of a dark green, altogether, present- 

 ing as rich an appearance as any flower of its sea- 

 son. 



Late in the fall, after the frost has destroyed al- 

 most everything in the floral kingdom, the Fringed 

 Gentian, Gentiana Crinita, spreads its delicately 

 feigned petals tinged the most beautiful blue and 

 presenting an appearance excelled by few culti- 

 vated flowers. 



In addition to these may be mentioned the Red 



