146 MASSACHUSETTS HOKTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



grasses which Avill produce turf of pleasiug appearance under 

 careful management, but this turf varies in fineness and quality, 

 according to the species used to make it. We do not need any 

 lawn mixtures to make a lawn. The worst initiative in the 

 making of a lawn is the sowing of a mixed lot of seeds. The 

 best turf I have ever seen was composed of single varieties in 

 pure cultures, and their beauty fully warrants the extra care and 

 expense necessary for their production. I am happy to be able 

 to show you pictures taken in the most famous grass garden — 

 or turf garden as the manager calls it — in this country. You 

 have all heard of it, and some of you have doubtless met the 

 genius who has developed it. This garden is tended with scrupu- 

 lous care and given daily attention. Not a weed, not a blade of 

 grass foreign to the variety cultivated, is allowed to appear in 

 any of the plots, or if appearing it is at once removed. It is at 

 all times beautiful, but under the slanting rays of an afternoon 

 sun, the beauties of this garden are most clearly brought out. 

 At a short distance it looks more like unrolled webs of carpet or 

 bands of delicately and variously tinted ribbon, than anything 

 else one can suggest ; and here we are able to see the turf-form- 

 ing qualities (under the treatment given them) of many grasses 

 and of many varieties of a single botanical species. To study 

 the texture of these is most interesting, and the illustrations 

 which T have to show you will in a very faint degree bring out 

 the differences of texture they exhibit. The finest and best 

 varieties of turf, and consequently for lawns, are those of 

 Festuca and Agrostis, Some of the forms of Agrostis are exceed- 

 ingly fine, yielding what we may very properly term a "nap," 

 almost as fine and soft as that of velvet. Some varieties of 

 Eestuca are no less beautiful and hardly less fine. How these 

 grasses Avould thrive under the shade of trees I cannot certainly 

 say, but I recall a remark made by Mr. Olcott when asked which 

 would do best in tlie shade. It was : '' Those that do best in the 

 sun." While some may question the exact truthfulness of this 

 remark, there may be more in it than we may at first sujipose. 

 But there are good turf grasses which will grow in the shade of 

 trees, where the shade is not too dense and they are given a 

 reasonable amount of care. These are Meadow Foxtail and the 

 Various-leafed Fescue (^Festnca hi'ferojtln/lla). Crested Dogstail 

 is spoken highly of by some ; also Kough-stalked Meadow grass 



