LUTHER BURBANK 



The value of the Lippias as lawn plants had 

 been shown by Dr. Francheschi, of Santa Barbara, 

 California, as long ago as 1900, he having intro- 

 duced a common form of Lippia repens from 

 Southern Europe where it had been grown as a 

 lawn plant by division until it lost its power of 

 producing seed, thus making further improvement 

 impossible. 



The opportunity to improve the plant came 

 when my collector in Chile sent me seed of some 

 of the wild species. I saw that there was a good 

 deal of variation among the plants raised from this 

 seed, and in the following season raised about ten 

 thousand plants, each one of which was given a 

 little space in order that its individual peculiari- 

 ties as to rapidity of growth, tendency to spread, 

 and color of foliage might be studied. 



From among some ten thousand plants about 

 half a dozen were saved, and the descendants of 

 these constitute several varieties of Lippias that 

 have marked peculiarities. A single cutting of one 

 variety will spread on an ordinary soil over a circle 

 about ten feet in diameter, in a single season. 

 This form would be very valuable for growing in 

 sunny places, in certain localities along irrigating 

 ditches, where the soil is subject to wash. 



But I have more recently found two far better 

 substitutes for this purpose. One is the Mesam- 



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