TWO PROMINENT SOUTHERN GRASSES 12 7 



fully planted in the Bethune garden. From this it 

 soon spread to the streets of the village. The embargo 

 act is therefore probably responsible for the intro- 

 duction of Bermuda grass into this country by making 

 it necessary to secure foreign merchandise through the 

 West Indies. There is no evidence to show that it 

 came from the Bermuda Islands. 



This grass has now spread northward to Maryland 

 and westward to the Pacific Coast, and is nearly as 

 common throughout the South as blue-grass is in the 

 North. It is, in many respects, the Southern counter- 

 part of blue-grass, and is, beyond question, the best pas- 

 ture-grass in the South, and one of the best in the 

 world. Like blue-grass, it is also the universal lawn 

 grass of the section over which it has spread. It is 

 distinctly a Southern grass, and revels in the hottest 

 parts of the long Southern summer. Even in the ex- 

 treme South it is not a shade-loving plant, but prefers 

 the direct rays of the sun. It is not an uncommon 

 thing to see Bermuda grass lawns with spots on the 

 shady side of trees and shrubbery in which the ground 

 is bare or occupied with more shade-loving plants, such 

 as white clover. 



Unlike blue-grass, Bermuda grass looks brown and 

 dead during the winter season, and does not begin to 

 ' * green out ' ' till rather late in spring. In the lati- 

 tude of Washington City it does not begin to throw 

 out green leaves till May. Its color is a light green, 

 not nearly so attractive as the richer green of blue- 

 grass. For these two reasons it is not an ideal lawn 

 grass. Nevertheless, a well-kept Bermuda lawn in the 

 Southern States is decidedly beautiful during summer. 



